The Fight for Kisses
by LostItThenFoundIt
Summary: In their final year at Hogwarts, the Marauders have all found themselves in some sort of relationship. However, as the war seeps into the school halls, they find they have to fight for every little bit of happiness. Sequel to 'The Change'
1. Chapter 1: The Summer Before

**The Summer Before**

June 21:

Lily and James,

Hey! So, I just want to remind you guys to not use any magic, at all, ever, no exceptions. Being separated like this is _not_ good for you, you're going to be testy and a little sick enough as it is. Your magic should basically dwindle down to nothing, don't be too surprised.

Stay out of trouble, okay?

-Alpha

June 23:

Mooney,

Hullo Mooney! Are you enjoying your time with your mum and da? I sure hope so because otherwise you rejected James' offer to stay at the Potter Manor for no reason. (Seriously though I am going nuts here with only Padfoot around, Mum and Dad are usually gone on missions for Merlin's sake!) Oh, so, I hear that tight bird Juliana is staying with you too, any shagging there? (I think you two would be very cute together, I approve of any shagging, go for it!) Well, we've got to go, Potter is insulting my manhood!

-Padfoot and Prongs

June 30:

Mooney,

Hullo, don't tell Prongs about this, because I have not and he's going to flip when I do. I'm going to move out, I have that money from my uncle and I feel bad free loading. You're, of course, invited to live in my flat. Should I invite Alpha? She's getting caged bird fever, and, I dunno, I figure it could be pretty brilliant for her to live in. What do you think? You're the level headed one.

-Padfoot

July 4:

Remus and the Pack,

I have GREAT news, I just wrote a bill that got passed, it's letting us all into school again! Here's how it will work, we will all be in our own 'house' (back in the Chamber), and a list with all of our names will be public. It sucks, and there are a lot more catches, but we're back in school and not wanted anymore! You guys (and girls) can all come back to the island!

I'm just absolutely exploding with excitement,

Alpha Omega

July 5:

James,

How are you doing, love? I am sorry, but merlin's pants I have to ask and we all know I can't ask Sirius. Is it right that Alpha is moving in with Sirius? I was talking to Juliana, her and the rest of the pack are back at Hogwarts because they're students with no magical parentage (I'm not sure how Travis got in...), and she said that Remus said that Sirius was going to invite her to live with him. I thought they 'weren't dating'?

Other than that, how are you? I hope you're doing well, though we both seem to be trapped this summer.

Love,

Lily

July 11:

Lily,

Lily, oh my god, Lily, I have news.

So you know how I was forced to stay with Tommie because I was underaged, and since the law passed and I wasn't hunted, I was then affected by the one that first outlawed me to make me stay with him. Anyway, I turned 17 yesterday (thanks for the card and cheerleading uniform, I can't thank you enough for making sure the cheer stayed a thing!) and moved in with Sirius, and Remus. James held the party at his house (mate to mate, I'm worried about your boyfriend, he's getting 'same four walls syndrome' pretty harsh) and afterward, well Remus stayed with James and Sirius and I headed back. Two teens with an apartment to themselves, what do you think happened? WE HAD SEX! Oh my god,does this mean we are a thing or something? I am _not_ ready for a thing, or am I? Oh my god!

I'm losing it!

-Alpha

July 23:

Lily, Love,

I am going bloody bonkers, Lily. My mum and dad have me locked up here, and after the attack in London I am feeling the containment! I _need_ to go out and help them, but I can't! I'm stuck in this bloody cage! They are out there, living in the real world with real dangers and here I am living in my posh Manor, away from reality. I'm fucking 17, I need to help out! This is war!

To make it worse, being away from you is literally making me sick. How did you ever live life without magic?

I love you,

James

July 25:

James, love,

NO. Do NOT tell Alpha that she should move in. I know, you're doing it out of kindness. but her and Sirius will _not_ take it that way, and regardless if she see's it as a way of you taking a hit on her independence, she will never forgive you. I know, she is in danger, she's who they were looking for, but do NOT go causing problems like that.

I love you, but don't be stupid,

Lily

July 30:

JAMES POTTER! I DO _NOT_ NEED YOUR _PROTECTION_! IF YOU THINK YOU ARE SO FUCKING AWESOME THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO PROTECT ME BETTER THAN ME, THINK AGAIN! YOU CAN'T EVEN DO MAGIC! YOU ARE VERY LUCKY I AM NOT GOING TO TELL SIRIUS, WHICH IS NOT A KINDNESS, I WANT TO BE THE ONE TO KILL YO ASS!

_**Don't**_fucking talk to me EVER again!

-Alpha Omega

August 7:

Potter. You overstepped your bounds there, I've got Alpha covered and I get that you're so _fucking_ brilliant because of Lily, but I am plenty enough man to protect Alpha and you'd be best to remember that.

I'm mad at you.

-Sirius

August 12:

Lily, Love,

This summer is terrible, I'm locked at home, and the only one who will/can visit me is Remus. The war keeps going on, Mum and Dad keep fighting, but I do nothing and _still_ get articles in Witch Weekly written about me, which by the way I hated and I don't want you to worry about. I can't wait until school.

Love you,

James

August 15:

James,

Cheer up, it's going to work out! Summer is almost over, and I am sure that Sirius and Alpha will come 'round. I liked the article, by the way, and I still think that it's good our relationship isn't known, or the bond part of it. Imagine the feild day that the Prophet would have!

Love you,

Lily

August 20:

Lily,

I got Head Boy, and Quidditch Captain (again). You're Head Girl, right? This'll be great! Sharing a dorm, *wink wink*.

Love you,

James

August 21:

Lily,

I am _so so_ sorry! I did not expect to steal Head Girl from you, I was perfectly happy with the Head of both Cheer and Gryffindor Cheer. I am _so so _sorry. Can you ever forgive me?

-Alpha

Alpha, dear,

Sweetie, don't worry! I can't imagine the amount of stress that comes with Head Girl, and I think you'll do much better than I at it. I'm not mad at all, besides, imagine the mess we'd be in if I had a shared dorm with James?

-Lily

August 23:

James,

I bring news of your freedom! September 1st is the day we go to London for our school supplies, we go in the morning and then head to the Kings Cross to go to Hogwarts. Can you meet me at the Leaky Cauldron at 7AM? I know it's really early, but if we have an adult 'escort' we don't have to go with their group, it's stupid but that's the way it is.

Love,

Lily

August 24:

Juliana,

Hullo Juliana. I was wondering if you would like to go with me to London on September 1st, I know you need an adult wizard to go without the group.

-Remus

-0-

Authors Note: Thanks for bearing with me, this chapter is just letters to summarize the summer, but it won't be like that for the rest of the story. This story will be much better written, just so you know. If anyone makes a comment, add the name of a person to it and I'll incorporate them in the story (Juliana was user submitted, btdubbs).

Have a great day!

-Leigh


	2. Chapter 2: Dates and More Dates

**Dates and More Dates**

LIly looked around, her head was pounding, her stomach was sick, and she was pale. She simply wanted to see James with every fiber of her being. Seeing him, that was enough. Just to _see_ his unruly hair, sharp hazel eyes, and wicked smirk would be enough. Maybe even hear him laugh or talk with that deep voice. As she saw James walk into the Leaky Cauldron, she nearly jumped out of her seat. James smiled at her and she ran (he seemed to be running as well) to meet him. She looped her arms over his neck and hugged him, knowing that there was no way that just seeing him would be enough. Her headache was gone, her stomach was fine, and if her skin was working like James' was, color was returning to her face.

"You're early," She said with a smile, they were still hugging. "It's only 6 in the morning."

"You're early too," He said, a smile also plastered on his face.

"How about we never do that ever again?" Lily asked, James laughed and they went to sit back down at the booth she had previously sat in, James' arm wrapped around her ribs.

"I can agree," He said. "I think it is good we didn't have magic, or I would have brought full on assault to Hogwarts."

Lily nodded in agreement, "It was absolutely terrible."

James went to kiss Lily then, receiving only a chaste kiss. "We're in _public_," She emphasized with a laugh, "Wait until we get alone..."

James smiled, "We are in a hotel..."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Some of the teachers are _already_ watching us."

James looked over his shoulder, seeing the strict looking McGonigal eying them wearily. "She knows about how sick we've been, and she honestly expects us to follow the schools protocol on PDA?"

Lily laughed, "I get the impression that, yes, yes she does."

"Bollocks," He said.

"James!" Said Lily with a laugh, leaning out of his arm but not really leaving.

-0-

"Hullo," Said Remus with a smile and a shaky voice.

"Hullo," Said Juliana, smiling and moving her right hand to grab her left elbow. "Thanks for coming, I think I will explode if I have to see another teacher. Poor Lily looked positively sick last night, so I assume she's much more sick of the teachers."

Remus laughed, "But you're sorting tonight, aren't you excited about that?"

Juliana grinned widely as they sat at a booth, ordering breakfast. "I am, very, but the whole concept of more teachers... Of course, we aren't really going to be a part of the house. We'll attend classes, and have the points scale, but we can't be prefects or sleep in our house so we aren't really there."

Remus nodded sadly, "I think it's great that Alpha got Head Girl, she never even noticed the loophole that werewolves couldn't be prefects but could be Heads. It does suck though, it's fine though, we're a pack, we should stick together anyway."

"Thank you for your help over the summer, Remus." Said Juliana, "I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't in the right year."

"Don't thank me," Said Remus. "You're the one who somehow managed to get through their OWL's without proper schooling."

"You're pretty much a proper teacher," Said Juliana. "Have you ever considered working at Hogwarts after this year?"

Remus shrugged, "So we were thinking that we'd all meet up for lunch at 11 here, does that sound good?"

"We?" Asked Juliana, she knew who he was talking about, but she loved teasing him about the Marauders.

Remus blushed, "I'm sorry, I can't just assume you know who, Sirius, Alpha, LIly, and James."

Juliana laughed, "I know, you're a very tight group. I think it's sweet, any sort of close friendship like that is terrific. You four accepted Alpha in even, but you'd never think she hadn't been with you for seven years."

Remus nodded, starting on his egg and bacon breakfast, "We're really close. I'd never met another werewolf before, and so it was nice to know someone else who got it. Plus, in America they're not hiding werewolves, so I tried to help her hide it."

"I can't imagine being free to tell people, without prejudice," Said Juliana wistfully as she dug into her eggs benedict. "I mean, we tell people now, but we have to, and we're shoved below the school and-"

"Jules?" Asked Remus sweetly with a sweet smile on his face, "You're stabbing your breakfast, I am fairly certain it is already dead."

Juliana laughed lightly, "I'm sorry, I just get so upset."

"It's understandable," Said Remus. "But this bill, it was like we had a step backwards, and this is a step forwards. At least you're required to be allowed in school, and you don't have to hide it -even if you have to tell."

"Look at you, being optimistic," Said Juliana happily. "What happened to the moody Remus I used to know?"

-0-

"Alpha?" Asked Sirius, "Alpha, love, it's 10:40, we're going to be late to lunch."

Alpha mumbled and turned away from Sirius on the bed, "No."

Sirius laughed, "Yes, and you threatened to hex off my bits if I didn't get you up in time for a shower, so you have to get up."

"Sirius," Said Alpha, still not getting up, "I got up _yesterday_, I don't have to today."

"Oh silly Head Girl," Said Sirius. "You have to go to school."

Alpha sighed and sat up, "Fine, but you have to help me in the shower, I don't feel like waking up enough to do it."

Sirius laughed, "I can live with that."

-0-

"Travis!" Said Letta, pulling on her older brothers hand, "Travis over _here_, they have owls!"

Travis laughed, "Okay okay, there's no need to pull me."

Once they got to the pet shop Letta looked all over, her eyes widening in awe as she looked around.

"You should get a pet snake, Travis." Said Letta, "I think it would be very cool to have a pet you can talk to."

Travis laughed, "Come on, we still have some supplies to get."

Thanks to Remus', the teachers at Hogwarts, and many late nights in the library, Travis was fine to go to his 7th year. Letta was going to stay in the Chamber, somehow the Headmaster had claimed her as a ward so she was able to stay during the school year.

"No, _you_ still have some supplies to get, _I_ don't, can I stay and look at the owls? Please?" Letta looked up at Travis, her eyes wide. She really didn't understand how it could be a problem for her to stay. Travis wished he could leave her, Merlin's pants, Travis wished he could get her a ruddy owl, he couldn't though. So, he was forced to say no and drag her to the bookshop.

-0-

"Why is your hair wet?" Asked Juliana as Alpha and Sirius arrived 10 minutes late.

Alpha laughed, "Hi Juliana, Lily, Remus," She didn't comment towards James, who was clearly hurt by the rejection. As Sirius sat down next to her at the table and also didn't say 'Hi!' to James, it was clear the two were not over the anger yet.

"I just took a shower," She said.

"With Sirius?" Juliana asked curiously, causing James to sputter his drink and Lily to sigh. Sirius clearly hadn't told James about his and Alpha's 'new' relationship.

"I just figured that way he would actually be cleaned," Alpha replied, not a trace of blush on her face.

Juliana thought for a second, "That is probably true, he often smells faintly of dog."

Sirius mock glared, "I am pleasantly clean, thank you."

"Thanks to Alpha, it seems," Said Juliana with a grin, Remus sat next to her hiding his smile in his butterbeer.

"I am very helpful," Alpha agreed, and Lily laughed.

"Well now that our food is here, I think we can all agree that we ought to pick a new topic of conversation." Said Lily as Alpha and Sirius ordered food for themselves.

"I agree," Said Remus.

"Oh, pick me!" Said Sirius, causing everyone to laugh. "I'm going to assume that means you picked me, I feel we need to tease Juliana and Remus here for dating."

"Oh no," Said Alpha, "They are too cute, someone else needs to pick a topic."

"How about you and Alpha, Sirius?" Asked Remus, causing both Sirius and Alpha to have surprised reactions.

"We aren-"

"Yeah, we're not a-"

"I mean she just needed-"

"Yeah, with my dad all kray kray-"

"See, her dad was, what is 'kray kray'?"

The duo had easily amused the whole table with their awkwardness.

"Crazy?" Asked Alpha, "It's like slang."

"When are you going to learn english?" Asked Sirius with a grin.

Alpha laughed and mocked insult, "When you clean yourself you bloody wanker."

"Ahh, see that was english, I understood that," Said Sirius.

Alpha rolled her eyes and happily accepted her sandwich.

"You two are terrible," Said Lily fondly.

James nodded in agreement, "Are we like that?"

"Oh yes," Said Juliana, "It's really annoying for the rest of us who are still looking for that 'true love'." Juliana blushed then, looking up from her food and widening her eyes. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that, you two are clearly so happy together, and I wouldn't want to-"

"Juliana, Juliana," Said Lily, reaching across the rounded table to grab her hand calmly. "It's not a worry, calm down."

James nodded, "You are fine, don't feel bad."

Juliana nodded and Remus smiled, "They're not as scary as you'd think."

Juliana laughed nervously, "Sorry..." She said, and that was when Alpha decided to change the topic. She knew her pack, and so she knew that it was best to just move on at this point.

"How are you two feeling?" She asked, knowing when she went a month without John how sick she had gotten. "I know you were feeling sick."

Lily smiled, it was a good change in topic, this required Alpha to acknowledge James.

"I'm feeling a lot better, it was a good morning," Lily said.

"Oh yes," Said James, "It's nice to be out in the real world."

Alpha rolled her eyes,why had the idiot brought up the Manor? It would only remind Sirius that he'd, in Sirius' eyes, tried to steal his not-a-girlfriend.

"That's good, you two had me worried," Said Alpha. "I know one time I got sick over a break, John had stayed with his family," Sirius got an odd look on his face, but anyone who noticed didn't take anything from it. "It was only month, and it was terrible."

Juliana looked confused, "Who is John?"

"Ex-Hus-Boyfriend," Said Alpha, her face conflicted.

Juliana had an odd look on her face as she thought, "Okay." She finally said, determining it was a touchy issue that Alpha could tell her later if she wanted to.

The large group of teens continued enjoying a peaceful lunch with small talk, banter, and re-bonding. By the end of it, everyone was as close as they were (if not more) before the summer started, Alpha and Sirius to James were no exception.

"Well," Said Juliana, "We'd better head back to the Leaky Cauldron or we'll miss the portkey."

"Ohh responsibility," Said Alpha, "That must be really annoying to have."

"Aren't you Head Girl?" Asked Remus with a laugh as they headed out.

"And I run the cheerleading department, _and_ I run the Gryffindor squad." Said Alpha with a groan, "I'm chock-full of responsibility this year."

"Well duh," Said Juliana, "Alpha is a girl, a muggleborn, a parselmouth, and a werewolf. The Headmaster is going to shove as much responsibility on her as he can, make an example out of her success."

"Juliana," Said Remus lowly, a warning tone that (somehow) wasn't condescending at all.

_Oh my god_, it hit Alpha, _did I only get this job because of Tom?_

Sirius glared at Juliana, not liking the newcomer as she hurt Alpha, unintentionally or not.

James sighed, still holding on to Lily. The 'Head-Boy-Ness' was hitting him hard, he never really realized how much responsibility it was. He looked at Alpha and saw a similar look oh her face, he realized then that Albus Dumbledore had made a horrid mistake in appointing the two of them and seriously considered resigning.

"Don't do that," Said Lily with a knowing look on her face, "You'll do terrific." She gave his hand a squeeze as they walked into the Leaky Cauldron.

"Hogwarts students!" Yelled Professor McGonagall from a corner of the now crowded pub. "Hogwarts students, over here!"

The group got closer to the large crowd, "Now," Said the shrill professor, a small nod escaping when she noticed the non-muggle born crowd with their school trunks. "I will be passing around a couple of sheets of yellow paper, everyone should get a hold of one of them and then we will portkey to the platform."

The group all grabbed on to a singular paper and when it activated, at 11:55, they felt a similar pull at their navels as they were teleported to Platform 9 3/4.

"I know we came here yesterday," Said Juliana, "But this is just so brilliant."

Remus smiled lightly at her amazement, happy for her but wishing that her awe wasn't years late.

After dropping their trunks off, sans Lily and Juliana who only had bags for the supplies they had purchased, the group made its way to an empty compartment. It was a small compartment, really only made for a group of four, maybe five. However, Lily and James, as well as Alpha and Sirius were sitting close enough they seemed to have morphed into one person, so everyone fit. On one side, Remus and Juliana sat next to each other. On the other, Alpha sat atop Sirius with her feet sitting on Lily's lap, who was leaning onto James.

"So what is the first thing you are going to do as an official Hogwarts student?" Alpha asked Juliana with a smile, excited for the 16 year old girl.

"Hide," The raven haired girl replied, "You do realize the Headmaster is going to announce to everyone we're werewolves right?"

"You do realize people are scared of werewolves here?" Asked Lily, "Especially the muggleborns, most people will be too scared to confront you."

"Regardless," Said Alpha, "I'm Head Girl, it's _literally_ my job to stop any bullying."

James nodded, "With both Heads on your side, life will be easier."

"Oh god," Said Alpha, "Frank and Alice aren't going to be here."

Lily laughed, "That is what happens when you graduate."

"Well that's stupid," Said Alpha, earning more than a few laughs.

"Frank and Alice will be fine Alpha," Said Sirius. "You saw them just last week for Merlin's sake."

"True," Said Alpha.

James looked at his watch, a present from his parents when he turned 17, "Alpha, we'd better head out."

Alpha groaned and got up with Lily and James, "Well, hasta la bye bye."

"What language is that?" Asked Juliana, confused.

"Spanglish," Said Alpha before walking out with James and Lily to head to the prefects cabin.

Once she got to the cabin, Alpha watched with concern as James and Lily winced upon separation. They'd been separated too long, she'd be willing to bet that not only did they have a headache when not touching, but they also found they were magicless.

"It's fine," Murmured James as other prefects filed in, "Stop looking so panicked."

"You two need to be _touching_," She murmured back, "At the least."

James didn't reply, it was clear he agreed.

After everyone arrived, Alpha began.

"Hello everyone," She said, her pink hair and American accent reminding everyone who she was. "My name is Alpha Omega, I'm your Head Girl."

"I'm James Potter," Continued James, "And I'm your Head Boy."

"How?" Asked Severus Snape, a fellow 7th year that James knew only because he'd been the 'carrier' in a sickness prank among the Slytherins. "Neither of you were Prefects."

"It is not a requirement," Said Alpha. "However, we really don't have time to discuss our qualifications, but feel free to ask us later, we're as lost as you."

The crowd smiled humorously, clearly happy with the situation.

"Okay," Said Alpha, "Let's do this chiz."

"Hu?" Asked a fifth year Ravenclaw prefect, "Chiz?"

"I really need to stop speaking with American colloquialisms don't I?" Said Alpha, James nodded.

"Anyway," Said James, "This year the prefect rounds are going to be in doubles. You will be assigned to your fellow house and year prefect, but if you would like a switch talk to us."

Alpha nodded, "We're more than willing to have mixed-house duos, so don't worry about that. Also, we'll be doing rounds until midnight rather than ten, and curfew is 8 not 9."

"We're going to need everyone to always be working," Said James. "With the war everyone is scared, we need to make sure that all students know they can go to all of the prefects for help."

There was a moment of tense silence in acknowledgement of the seriousness of the war before Alpha continued.

"This year we are going to have some new students," She said, struggling to find the best way to word it. "Werewolves." She finally decided to just go for it, figuring it was a good way to start. As the crowd erupted in worry and prejudice, James yelled.

"I BELIEVE THAT ALPHA WAS TALKING!" He yelled, giving everyone a pointed look.

"Thank you," She said. "Now, these students will be staying in separate dorms, but other than that will be sorted and attend classes proper. I expect that every single one of you will treat them equally, being as I am fairly biased towards myself, I will punish harshly for anyone who is treating them un-equally."

"I will be the same way," Said James.

"Are _you_ a werewolf?" Asked Snape, disbelief in his voice as if he already knew the answer.

"Yes," Alpha said, "And you will find the names of all others at the feast." She stood tall, a strong look about her. Regardless, the crowd sneered at her.

"Do you all forget how she saved your as- you last year at Hogsmead?" Asked James, "Or how she started the Cheerleading squads?"

"James calm down," Said Alpha, upset but not wanting someone else to solve her problems. "Now that is all we have for today, and it appears we have reached the train station, don't forget to tell the second years where to go as well as the firsties!"

The students streamed out and the Heads sighed, that had not gone as planned.

"Omega?" Asked Snape, who appeared to have stayed behind. "Omega I bring a message, but Potter has to leave."

Alpha looked at Potter, who had (to Alpha's happy note) re-attached himself to Lily, he did not appear to want to leave.

"James go," Said Alpha, "If you forget, he's one of the few who didn't sneer."

James got a tense look on his face, then decided he'd leave, to tell Sirius to go to Alpha. Lily rolled her eyes as she walked with him, pretty sure she knew his plan, she did.

Snape watched as James and Lily left, then performed a spell Alpha didn't know and locked the doors.

"What spell is that?" Alpha asked, curious.

"Muffliato," He said, "Makes a buzzing in others ears, prevents eavesdropping."

Alpha nodded, knowing she wouldn't have trusted him if he didn't tell her, she was fairly certain he knew that.

"I'm working on a potion that will give werewolves control of their mind during the full moon," He stated.

"Uhm, what?" Asked Alpha, shocked. "That's _really_ advanced stuff there."

Severus rolled his eyes, "I know that."

"So why are you telling me?" Alpha asked wearily, concerned that she already knew where he was heading.

"I need a test subject," He stated plainly.

Alpha let out a breath of air, yeah, she was right. She seriously (haha Sirius, no, now was not the time to think about Sirius, and now was _especially_ not the time to think about Sirius in the shower) hated being right. "I can't answer right now," She stated.

"I know that," He said, "I did not think you were stupid."

"Who know's about this?" Alpha asked, "Who is funding you?"

Severus nodded, knowing she would ask. "My family is wealthy," He lied, "And I have not worked with any adults, nor do I intend to. This is my discovery, not anyone elses."

Alpha nodded, "Stay away from the others." She said, "The Headmaster has to announce them, but you are _not_ to test on them, or even tell them you are trying. I'm not saying that as Head Girl, though I will remind you that testing new spells or potions on other students is strictly prohibited, I'm saying this as a fellow 7th year who will make your life _hell_ if you hurt my friends."

Severus rolled his eyes, again, "You don't need to resort to threats, I know I'll need to compromise to get you on my side. I can't promise I won't search for other... options if you refuse though, but I respect that you will not approve."

Alpha nodded, she knew the reputation Slytherins had, but she hadn't bought into it. Now, though, she began to wonder.

"I don't want you telling anyone either," Said Severus. "Last thing I need is the Marauders against me personally."

Alpha, again, nodded, "That's fair. I have to go, I think that's Sirius outside the door now."

"Okay," He said, unlocking the door and slipping past Sirius.

"What was that?" Asked Sirius, looking like he rejected letting the Slytherin go.

"Prefect stuff," Said Alpha, lying with an ease that concerned her. Lying shouldn't be so easy, especially not to Sirius. Not that they were dating or anything, but still.

"With the door locked?" Asked Sirius.

"With the door locked," Alpha confirmed as she walked out with him.

Sirius sighed, not liking the secrecy but knowing to drop it, for now. The went to get on the last carriage, Sirius explained that the others had gone ahead, and found it filled with three Gryffindors, one of them a fifth year prefect.

"How about you walk," One girl said, a sneer plastered on her face.

"Did I have sex with you?" Asked Sirius, "Because usually you birds say thanks for that."

Alpha gave Sirius an incredulous look, but before she could say anything the sixth year, non-prefect, spoke up.

"We just don't want a _wolf_ in our carriage, it's a safety concern."

The fifth year looked conflicted, on one hand Alpha was her head girl and she _really_ didn't want to mess up her first year as prefect. On the other hand, her sister had told her about how terrible werewolves were, and she was probably right to tell Alpha to go.

"Yeah, well, it's the last carriage," Said Alpha. "So I'll just stay here and eat you."

"Alpha is twice the witch you'll ever be, Adian," He said to the older sister.

"Oi!" Said the boy, also a sixth year, "You don't talk to my girlfriend like that."

"Shut your face, Baxter," Said Sirius quickly.

"ENOUGH!" Said Alpha, "If you four can't calm down you will ride in silence."

"You can't do that!" Exclaimed Baxter.

"Test me," Said Alpha dangerously.

The rest of the ride they sat in silence.

-0-

Sitting in the Great Hall, Remus looked up at Juliana and the others of the pack, sharing a supportive smile with Alpha.

"Crawford, Juliana."

Juliana walked up to the stool and sat down happily, smiling despite her nerves. She still thought it was a waste of time, but then again, a small part of her was curious to see how she would be sorted.

"Ravenclaw!"

Juliana walked happily to the Ravenclaw table, enjoying the house's acceptance while she could.

"Malor, Travis."

Travis walked up to the stool, no rush, no sluggishness. He sat down on it, a look of not caring on his face, which was probably because he didn't care. Letta was in the Chamber, playing with some of the house elves, he just wanted to get back to her.

"Gryffindor!"

Travis nodded and went to the table, going to sit with Alpha and Remus.

"Terris, Malcolm."

Malcolm ran -literally- up to the stool. He looked at McGonigal and grinned, "I'm really excited." He said, causing a rare smile to hit the teachers lips.

"Hufflepuff!"

Malcolm grinned and went to the Hufflepuff table, running then as well, and instantly finding a group of third years to talk to. He sent a supportive thumbs up to Morgan as his name was called.

"Hufflepuff!" The hat yelled, sending Morgan to walk at a moderate speed to join his brother.

With that, the sorting was over.

"Welcome!" Said Headmaster Dumbledore, "Welcome Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuffs alike. This year is going to be a great year, _if we stick together_. We all know that a war is looming outside of the Hogwarts walls, which only makes it more important for us to stick together, despite our differences. This is why I, with great pleasure, announce that Hogwarts will now house all students, even those affected by the terrible disease; lycanthropy." The crowd erupted, and it took a couple of minutes before the Headmaster was able to calm them down. "These students are now members of the Hogwarts family, of the Hufflepuff family, of the Gryffindor family, of the Slytherin family, and of the Ravenclaw family. They will have their own dorms, which will work as a safety measure during the full moon. I must remind you, before I tell you who they are, that discrimination against this group will not be tolerated and it will be punished to the greatest extent." There was silence, and then he continued.

"Juliana Crawford, Travis Malcolm, Malcolm Terris, Morgan Terris, Remus Lupin, and finally, this years Head Girl, Alpha Omega." The Headmaster did not pause before continuing, "I would like to congratulate these six brave students for working on their education despite the challenges laid out for them. Now, to feast!"

With that the Hogwarts students saw food. However, it did not distract them from the matter at hand.

"Werewolves?!" One voice cried in outrage, a seventh year with the name Delores. "You can't allow those... those mutts into this school!"

Voices of agreement filled the crowd, the pack found themselves suddenly isolated. In a school that not two minutes ago accepted them generously, they found they were threatened.

"Detention!" Said the Headmaster, "Miss. Umbridge, for a month, would anyone else like to join her?"

There was silence in the hall, "These students are not to be attacked for their bravery. They possess a _disease_ that takes them out of control of their bodies one night a month, yet they still go on and try to live a life." The crowd was silenced, but Alpha knew the students were not convinced.

"Well," She said, not needing to stand for her unique voice to echo through the silent hall. "I'm not hungry. Cheer captains have a meeting this Friday right after dinner in the library, have a fucking brilliant night." With that she walked out, her anger radiating off of her body. She had given _so much_ for this school, yet they hated her.

There was another moment of silence after she left, then a Hufflepuff, Alexis Purdue, spoke up.

"I fought in both battles last year," She said, "And I couldn't have fought the second one if Alpha hadn't saved me at Hogsmead."

There were murmurs of agreement through the Great Hall, and everyone went back to eating, not all but plenty welcoming the newcomers, and accepting old friends, despite prejudice.

-0-

Juliana, James, Remus, Lily, and Sirius headed to the Heads Common Room after a nice dinner.

"You are all welcome to stay here tonight," Said James, welcoming Lily to share a plush loveseat with him. She did.

Remus nodded, "Sounds good, I wouldn't want to bunk alone with Sirius."

Sirius wasn't listening though, he was heading up the stairs to the Head Girls room, stairs that were un-charmed in case of emergency.

"Alpha?" He said, not knowing on the door. It wasn't like there was anything he hadn't seen. "Alpha you okay?"

"Yeah," She said, sitting on her bed, going over cheer stuff.

Sirius sat next to Alpha, she hadn't really ever been too sad in front of him, but he knew something was up.

"Clearly," He replied sarcastically, lifting her head up. "I always cry when I'm fine."

She wiped her eyes, "Go away."

"Alpha, Alpha, hey," He said, sitting down next to her. He wrapped his arms around her, "You remember Hogsmead?"

Alpha laughed lightly, "The town?"

"No, the battle," He said.

"Yeah," She said slowly. "Yeah, I remember that."

"Well there was one girl there, a Hufflepuff, and she stood up for you after you left. Thanks to her, everyone in your pack made friends." Sirius said, pulling her into his lap.

"I just-" She sighed, "I hoped that people would be, I dunno, chill, like they are back home."

Sirius sighed, her voice went back to a completely american accent when she was stressed or worried.

"A lot of people are," Said Sirius, "And the others, well the others don't really matter all that much do they?"

Alpha laughed, her face sobering up. "That is true, plus I can just give them detention."

"And there is the bird I know and love," Smiled Sirius.

Alpha sighed, still upset.

"Hey," Said Sirius, "Isn't there a phrase for like, shag it and make it all better."

Alpha laughed a full, healthy laugh, "It's kiss it and make it better."

Sirius shrugged and leaned down to kiss her. After a few minutes, they broke apart.

"All better," She said with a grin before winking and heading downstairs.

Sirius let out a puff of air and flopped back, "That bird is going to kill me." He said, entirely certain that was fact. _It's worth it..._

-0-

Authors Note: Thanks for reading everyone! I hoped you liked this chapter, I just got a chromebook so it's all drive for me, which is why I can post more, I don't have to be at home to write, xD.


	3. Chapter 3: Off to an Okay Start

**Off to An Okay Start**

The first night at Hogwarts, the Marauders (plus Juliana) slept in the Head's Commons. Somehow, all six students slept on a loveseat and two plush chairs. In one plush chair Sirius and Alpha slept, using the armrests as feet holders and pillows. In another plush chair Lily and James slept, they moved there so that Remus and Juliana could sit next to each other un-awkwardly. They slept like they sat, Lily's head resting on James' shoulder and James' arms snaking around her with a low hug. Lastly, the remaining werewolves slept on the loveseat, their feet at each others heads. Remus scrunched his legs up, the teen boy was simply too tall for the loveseat, and they still slinked off to the side. When the one hour warning bell rang throughout the school, the group slowly woke up. After 30 minutes where everyone was haphazardly getting ready, they were finally awake (minus Alpha, who seemed to never adapt to the new time zone) enough to go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Once arriving to the Great Hall, Juliana broke from the group, going to the Ravenclaw table to socialize and get her timetable.

"Alpha," Said Sirius, "did you know that I am awesome?"

"Oh yes," Said Alpha, "Otherwise why would I bother with you?"

Remus rolled his eyes, looking over his schedule.

"Well," Said Lily, "It seems we've all got DADA this morning."

James nodded, and Alpha traded timetables with Lily to compare.

"Why don't you have NEWT Charms?" She asked, confused. "I thought you loved charms?"

"I do," Said Lily, "Which is why I got special permission to take the NEWT test my OWL year. I dropped the healing charms track, which is why I got 7th Year Transfiguration, not NEWT."

James nodded, "I got 7th year Charms, I'm bollocks in there, Lily-flower can you help me out?"

Lily laughed, "Yes, Love, I can."

"You two are mighty perky," Remus commented, "Yesterday you were like two fish that just got back into water."

"They were separated for almost three months," Said Alpha, "They might not even have magic now if they don't touch, after a night together they probably feel loads better."

"You do know how freaky it is that you know more about us than we do?" Asked James, Lily nodded in agreement.

"Though it is nice to have someone who knows what's what though," She said. "I can't imagine how it was with John."

Alpha shrugged, digging into her waffles. Sirius dug into his food as well, feeling bad about being jealous of John, and also mad at Lily for bringing it up. Not to mention the fact that he knew all of the emotions he was feeling were silly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Said Lily panicking, she hadn't meant to bring up John. She couldn't imagine what she would do without James, and she knew that Alpha's bond with John was stronger. Also, there was the complication that her father had killed John.

"Hey James," Said Remus, "you're taking NEWT arithmancy right?"

James nodded, "Yeah."

"Ew, why?" Asked Alpha, "You brit's don't _have_ to take math, why on earth would you?"

"It's not just math," Said James. "it's _magical_."

Lily laughed, "He's just a nerd like you or me."

"Take me out of that," Said Alpha. "I am _not_ a bookworm, never have been.¨

Sirius gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek, ¨I know, and that's what makes you so awesome.¨

Alpha laughed and kissed him as well, causing Remus to roll his eyes and James to laugh. Lily gave Alpha a knowing look, and James sent Lily one telling her she need to explain. Lily rolled her eyes and let him know she'd tell him later, he grinned triumphantly.

"I swear it's like they speak a separate language," Said Remus.

"Well, duh," Said Alpha.

"To you maybe," Said Remus, "This is newer to me and Sirius here than anyone else."

"Yeah, but I just chalk it up to the weirdness that is James and Lily," Said Sirius between bites of sausage and bacon.

"Well we have 10 minutes," Said Lily. "So I figure you can talk about this on the way to DADA."

They did.

-0-

"...we need in this war?" Asked a young Auror, an attractive man in his late twenties. He had been introduced as Alastor Moody, the Auror who had set up the fast track training program, getting fresh Hogwarts graduates ready for field work in one year. "More aurors, and not just more of them, but we need fresh thinkers. Aurors who think on their feet, the ones who can communicate silently, and use spells creatively. Tell me, how do you block the killing curse?"

"You don't," Said Travis blankly when the Auror called on him.

"Wrong, you die, next?" Asked the Auror, "Anyone else?" He pointed to Alpha, "Yes? Miss. Omega?"

"You conjure a rock," Said Alpha.

"Yes, you live," Said Moody, "Change your hair and you might stand a chance as an Auror."

Alpha nodded, she knew she couldn't change her hair, and regardless, she couldn't fight. She simply couldn't do it, no matter how good at it she was. Every fight led to a flash back to John, sending her into a depression or a panic attack.

"Who in here knows the most needed auror?" He asked, moving on. "Potter?"

"Medi-Aurors," He said simply, proud that he knew but knowing he had an unfair advantage with his father the head of the Auror Department.

"Yes, and why is that?" He asked, "Miss. Evans?"

"Er," Said Lily, looking at James, confused, "Because they can heal themselves?"

"No, wrong, incorrect," Moody said. "Malor, make up for your previous failure. Why do we need Medi-Aurors?"

"Because they can heal on the battlefield," Said Travis. "And they know what spells do more damage."

"Correct, but you are still dead," Said Moody. "See there are no chances in the real world, in the real war." A statement that had started out slightly amusing turned the class suddenly much more serious than it had been before. "When I see some of you this coming summer, you're all going to want into the fast track." He said, "And I need Aurors there, but an Auror is no good dead. If you are in the fast track, you cannot make a single mistake. Make a mistake in the real world you die, make a mistake in fast track and you're shipped right back down on the five year plan." After a couple moments of silence Moody spoke again, "Miss. Omega, you're American, right?"

"Yes," Alpha answered proudly, "that'd be me."

"Great for you," Said Moody, "Now everyone knows who you are. With your pink hair and american accent, you'd be a threat to every team you joined. Every year the Auror Department has to deal with hot shots, people who are going to want to do it all alone. That is _not_ how it works, Aurors work in teams. Aurors aren't assigned to teams, Aurors form them. That right there is how we will win this war."

Alpha glared openly, she wasn't a 'hot shot', and she didn't appreciate being treated like one because of a misfire spell when she was fourteen.

"Alpha," Warned James, "stop glaring, seriously, Moody-"

"Omega," Said Moody, "Potter, Lupin, Black, and Walter."

The Marauders plus Morgan Walter, a fellow 7th year Ravenclaw boy, looked up.

"You five had better send me your applications come fall," He said, "I've been watching you and you're good. Consider this recruitment. As for the rest of you, train up, send your applications, and we'll welcome the help."

The bell rang then and the class left, Lily staying behind (James with her, they were still holding hands) to talk to Moody.

"Auror Moody," She said, "My name is Lily Evans."

Moody looked at her, sizing her up, "Yes, you're Potters bird right?"

Lily nodded, but she was clearly offended. She took her hand away from James, the feeling of her magic slipping away making her stomach sick. "What exactly does a Medi-Auror do?"

"Medi-Aurors do an Aurors job, but in the field if their team get's wounded, they help them out." Said Alastor, "We only have a handful right now, why, do you know someone?"

"I'm sorry?" She asked, "Wh- I am training to be a healer."

"Look, Evans is it?" He said, "We can't have you, or any other bird for that matter, becoming a liability."

"I've fought before," Said Lily. "At Hogsmead, against Voldemort."

"Yes," Said Alastor, "You got two slaps in before he used the cruciatus against you. I know, not too impressive." He sighed, "Despite the fact that your tattoos are as bad as Omega's hair."

"Also permanent and unremovable," Said Lily. "And, may I point out, just as hidable as James'."

"Potter is wearing a short sleeved school uniform, and he is covered, but yours spread to your hands." Alastor said.

Lily was frustrated, her tattoos burning red. "I'm a bloody good witch, dammit, and you should know my name!"

Alastor nodded, "Make me." With that, he headed out.

"Subtle," Said James with a slight laugh.

"Oh my gosh," Said Lily, "I just cursed in front of Alastor Moody."

"Yes, you did," He said, "Now come on," He grabbed Lily's hand, her tattoos calming to a black color again, "Let's get you to class."

Lily, it seemed, was still in shock. When they got to class, it occurred to her that he was going to have to leave. She gave him a kiss and before she left he grabbed her arm.

"We need to talk," He said, "This afternoon?"

Lily nodded, knowing he was talking about her new wants to be an auror.

She headed into class, three long desks filling the completely theoretical classes room. She sat next to Sirius, Alpha next to him. Alpha seemed bummed, so Lily asked Sirius what was up.

"She was excited about Moody," Said Sirius. "Remus pointed out that neither of them could work for the ministry though, and she got upset. She didn't even want to be an Auror, but I guess she's sad that now she can't."

"I am right here," Said Alpha, "And that's not it, I'm bummed because I packed a banana to eat and it got squished. I don't want to work for the ruddy ministry anyway."

Lily laughed lightly, but it was then that Headmaster Dumbledore came in the room.

"Good morning class," He said brightly, "Welcome to NEWT Magical Theory. Now, usually this is only a first year class, but as you all know, this year we have started offering a much more advanced form of the class."

The trio looked around, there were only two other students (two Ravenclaws) in the class.

"Alas," Said the Headmaster, "There was little demand, which is why I will be your professor this year."

"Yes," Said Alpha, getting a high five from Sirius and an eye roll from Lily, who already knew that the Headmaster was going to teach.

As Alpha happily anticipated, the class was very enjoyable as Albus Dumbledore proved to be a terrific teacher.

-0-

By the end of the day, the Marauders were happily assimilated to school again. Alpha was enjoying her more advanced classes, and Lily was driven with a need to prove herself that she had never had before. The pack had enjoyed life at Hogwarts, where they found that most people hated/feared them, but about 20% were perfectly happy and friendly with them. After their first day, they knew what to expect and had more excitement than fear. James and Alpha found that, as Heads, every lost first year, every jealous 5th year, pretty much everyone with every problem found their way to them, if they didn't want to involve the teachers. Remus found that students still made their way to him, as many recognised him as a prefect from years before and some of those did not care about his 'furry little problem'. Most importantly, Sirius found that he _really_ liked Alpha.

After dinner, the previously mentioned Alpha had a meeting with the other cheer captains, a sixth, seventh, and fifth year.

"Hey," Said Alpha as she sat down at the table. "Sorry, if it's possible to be more of a stereotype for a cheerleader, I got distracted by Sirius."

Ginger and Alexis, the Slytherin and Hufflepuff captains in 7th and 6th year, grinned knowingly. Tracy, however, only huffed.

"I'm sorry?" Said Alpha, slight aggression in her tone, "Do you have a sickness?"

"No," Said Tracy, "That'd be you."

Alpha glared, "Yeah well, that a least gives me an excuse to be bitchy right now, what's yours?" Tracy didn't say anything, "What?" Asked Alpha, "Scared I'll eat you?"

Alexis laughed lightly, and Ginger spoke, her voice flat and matter-of-fact as always.

"I figure you would have done that by now," She said, Alexis laughed again and Alpha grinned, happy for the support.

Alpha pulled out her paper then, copied it, and passed it to the other cheer captains. They discussed where they would cheer, it was determined they would use the floor of the field below the pitch. Each team would have someone whose sole purpose was to spot for quidditch members falling down.

"So," Said Ginger, "Who is going to be allowed on the teams?"

"Everyone?" Asked Alexis, Alpha shook her head.

"No, no," Said Alpha, "I know we had no limitations last year, but we need some this year. First years can't be on the same team as 6th years, it's not safe."

Alexis nodded, "So what year should we cut it at?"

Alpha thought for a second, "Fifth years are the youngest allowed, but other than that you can limit it more."

"I don't want to allow werewolves on my team," Said Tracy, a look of stubbornness on her face.

"Why?" Asked Ginger, Alpha glared.

"It's not safe," She said, "I'm not going to support the change in laws."

"Oh so we should just be-" Alpha stopped to take a deep breath, she was head girl, pack leader, she couldn't make this personal. "That is not going to happen, the Headmaster, myself, and the Head Boy have all stated that there will be no discrimination and that any discrimination will be punished with the highest severity."

"You can't stop me," Tracy said. "It's my team."

"Not anymore," Said Alpha. "Go, now, I will run the Ravenclaw tryouts, you are banned from cheer."

Tracy gaped, "You can't do that!"

"She is Head Girl," Said Ginger, "And the girl who is running this department, so yes, she can."

"Go," She said, "Now, any more arguing and you get detention."

"That's not fair," Tracy said. "You're just mad at me."

"You are discriminating," Said Alpha. "I _have_ to punish you."

Tracy glared and Alexis grinned as she forcefully grabbed her bag and stomped off.

"Okay, so" Alpha said. "When do we want to do tryouts?"

"Well," Said Ginger, "If we have decided we want to do the cheer competition as well as general cheer at games, and I think we have." Ginger looked for confirmation and the other two nodded, "We should do it soon."

"Next weekend?" Alpha suggested, "Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw saturday, Gryffindor and Slytherin sunday?"

"That could work," Said Alexis.

Alpha nodded and wrote it down.

-0-

"How are you doing homework already, Mooney?" Sirius asked Mooney, the two of them hanging out in the Heads Commons, much to the amusement of James. "Lily-flower isn't even doing homework, she's upstairs with James."

Remus sighed, "I came up here because Malcolm and Morgan won't shut up in the Chamber, please don't make me regret that."

"But Mooney," Whined Sirius. "Alpha left me, James and Lily have left me, you can't leave me too!"

"Alpha hasn't left you," Said Remus, giving up on his homework. "She's holding a meeting."

"Oh yey, you're stopping," Said Sirius.

Remus rolled his eyes, "So how are things with you and Alpha anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Sirius, "You lived with us, we're getting on just as well as ever."

Remus rolled his eyes, again. "You two are a time bomb, you want a relationship, Alpha doesn't. With all of this, you're constantly on top of each other, flirting, and sleeping together."

Sirius laughed, "Remus, I've got the perfect situation here."

"Yeah," Said Remus, "And when you turn 15 again, I will believe you."

Sirius sighed, "Look, things are working great with Alpha right now. I don't know why I'd mess that up."

Remus nodded, "Because you want to?"

Sirius didn't disagree, rather he changed the attention over to Remus. "What about you and Juliana?"

Remus shrugged, "It's so dangerous for me to have a relationship." He said sadly, "I don't know what I was thinking."

Sirius laughed, "Remus, Juliana is a werewolf too, what's the problem?"

Remus rolled his eyes, "The point is still there, and regardless I'm really not the type to have a girlfriend."

"But you want to?" Asked Sirius, Remus nodded.

"Honestly, though, I think I might just let her decide if she wants to get into it with me."

"Oh yes!" Said Sirius with a big smile, "Go Mooney!"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"You know what," Said Sirius, standing up to go to the library and wait from Alpha to finish. "If this all works out, all the Marauders will be officially taken."

Remus smiled lightly, thinking he would like that very much, and started back on his homework.

-0-

In the downstairs Head Boy's room, Lily and James were not, in fact, doing what Sirius assumed. They were simply talking, granted they were basically laying on top of each other, but they were talking nonetheless.

"So what was with the Moody thing?" Asked James.

"Last year, when the Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts," She said. "You remember I did the healer thing?"

James nodded, "You did really good, saved a lot of lives."

"No matter how many times I tell myself that," She said. "I still flash back to that fifth year prefect, Peter Pettigrew. You remember him right? He was twelve his first year because he had an odd birthday, so his mum just held him back. We could have been friends with him, but that's not it. It was my _job_ to keep him alive, and I couldn't. I can't go through that again, I just, no, I can't."

James nodded, "But you want to fight?"

Lily nodded, "There's the obvious reasons for me being anti-death eater, but there's more. I actually truly believe in this cause, for equality not just between muggleborns and pure bloods, but werewolves and americans and and I don't know, just everyone."

James smiled, "I think it'd be good, if only so you'd have more training to protect yourself."

Lily laughed, "On to a less dreary topic, you want to know what the look was for this morning?"

"Oh yes," Said James enthusiastically.

"Alpha is actually falling for Sirius," Said Lily. "Like, an actual deep romance thing, not a fling."

"That is _great_ news," Said James. "Sirius has been there for so long."

Lily nodded, "Now we just have to wait for her to figure it out."

"In the meantime," Said James. "It has been suggested to me, by an expert in the subject may I point out, that we do a little more than touching. I've been told it is key to curing our lack of independant magic."

Lily giggled, "An expert? Oh well, if that's the doctors orders."

After their activities, Lily and James felt a lot better.

-0-

Authors Note: Well here you go, chapter 3. The chapters for this story are huge, at least in comparison to the last book. What does everything think so far? Oh, and don't worry, it won't stay peaceful for too long. If Supernatural has taught me anything, it's that I shouldn't allow happiness to become a 'thing'. xD Please please please review!


	4. Chapter 4:All Your Ships Will Sail

**All Your Ships Will Sail**

In the first full school week of the year, James and Lily spent more and more time around each other. More often than not they found themselves falling asleep together, and if possible they always at least held hands. Even with all of this, neither of them were able to do any magic when they weren't touching. No matter how much they loved each other, they found themselves worried about losing their independence. Classes were proving to be difficult, being as they weren't sharing all that many classes but needed to use magic in almost all of them. The teachers were warned, and did not bring attention to the fact, but it was becoming a serious problem. Alpha had noticed the problem, and worried silently that they may need to take their relationship to 'the next level' to solve the problem.

-0-

The Chamber of Secrets required a parselmouth password. The Chamber of Secrets required a _parselmouth_ password. Why no-one had thought of this before was more than annoying to Travis Malor, the only parselmouth who lived in the Chamber. He found himself going up and down the stairs that Alpha had conjured to let people in multiple times a night. Remus, at least, was a one time deal. Malcolm and Morgan were going in and out all of the time, at the weirdest times! He mumbled to himself as he headed upstairs to let Remus and Juliana in. Tonight Alpha had called a pack meeting, where was she by the way? Couldn't she let them in?"

"Thank you," Said Remus gratefully, Juliana nodded.

"Alpha is off with Sirius somewhere," Said Juliana. "She'll be here soon."

_Terrific_, Travis nodded and headed downstairs, "Is she getting food?" _What exactly does she see in that mutt anyway?_

"Yes," Said Remus, "And she shouldn't be too long."

Once they got to the main lobby of the Chamber, everyone took their seats. The lobby of the Chamber was a surprisingly comfortable place. With rugs, a couch, three plush chairs, and two loveseats along with assorted tables and a warming charm, Remus found it a very peaceful place. Remus and Juliana sat next to each other on the couch, and Travis moved to sit next to Letta on a loveseat.

"Can I just say how cool it is that Alpha's been working so hard to keep us together?" Asked Juliana, "She pulled us all together and now we have a family of people to depend on. We're like our own house, the Werewolves."

Remus laughed lightly and Letta nodded.

"I think it's really cool down here," She said, "Hey Travis you said I could go swimming with Malcolm and Morgan when you came back, can I go?"

Travis smiled, "Yeah, sure."

The snakes bath had been easily changed into a large pool. It wasn't very deep, only about five foot deep at its deepest, but it was plenty fun. Malcolm specifically was known for trying especially dangerous stunts in and around the pool.

It was then that Alpha ran into the lobby, her shirt tucked but off a button, her hair in a messy bun, and her arms filled with food and pumpkin juice (as well as a water for her).

"Hello," She said breathlessly. It was due to running, but it only served to bitterly remind Travis that Alpha was hanging around Sirius. "Malcolm, Morgan, Letta! Let's get out of the pool, shall we?"

The trio got out of the pool and ran to the lobby to sit down, Remus dried them off with his wand before they soaked the loveseats they sat in.

Alpha set the food out on the table and sat down in a spare plush chair, "Okay guys, what's up?"

Malcolm and Morgan were giggling, causing Alpha to give them an odd look.

"Your shirt is miss buttoned," Said Juliana.

Alpha laughed, "That it is, well, that's Sirius for you, he's not real good about putting clothes _on_."

Everyone joined into a healthy laugh, even Letta who didn't really understand, well not Travis.

"Okay so let's do the meeting part of tonight real quick," She said, calming everyone down. "So, any issues lately?"

"Yes," Said Travis, "No-one but you or me can get into the Chamber, I'm constantly heading upstairs."

Alpha thought for a second, "I cannot _believe_ that never occurred to me, I'll talk to the Headmaster as soon as I can. Anything else?"

"No, not that I can think of," Said Juliana, the group agreed.

"Awesometastic," Said Alpha with a grin.

After a couple of hours, Alpha had to leave. She was required to stay in the Head Dorms so she could be found easily, and curfew was almost up. Travis headed to his room, threatening death to any who made him go upstairs and let them in, where Letta had gone to 30 minutes before. Malcolm and Morgan headed to their room, doing something, nobody was really sure.

"So," Said Juliana, "Any plans for the weekend?" She asked, hoping to start conversation.

"Not really," Said Remus. "What about you?"

Juliana shrugged, "I was going to try out for cheer but..."

"But what?" Asked Remus, "You should, you might be really good!"

Juliana sighed, "Nah, too much nervousness."

Remus rolled his eyes, "I'll do it if you do." He teased, causing Juliana to laugh.

"Yeah, sure," She said, "I'll take you on that."

"Indeed, then we'd better sleep, we have tryouts this weekend." He said seriously, getting up. Juliana joined him on the way to their rooms.

"Are you serious?" She asked, amused.

"Yes," He said, stopping at her door and pushing her in lightly. "Now go sleep, you have try outs."

-0-

"So, does everyone understand the movements of this cheer?" Asked Alpha.

"YES!" The group of Ravenclaws yelled.

"Great," Said Alpha with a wide smile. "Here is the chant, repeat after me." She started yelled then, clapping along but not moving, "One, two, three, four. Who do you plan on rooting for? Go Ravens, go go go Ravens, RAVENCLAW!"

Alpha watched as the group repeated after her and nodded, "Good, good." About twenty or so people remained, and there were only ten spots left. "Witlock, Estien, you're out!"

The two girls sadly left the group, but what could Alpha say, these were tough tryouts.

"Now, before you continue, try to remember that we're looking for a captain here!" She spread her legs and started the cheer, "Repeat. After. Me. One, two, three, four. Who do you plan on rooting for? Go Ravens, go go go Ravens, RAVENCLAW!"

She nodded as the girls cheered, "Paisly, Orion, Thistle, out." Fifteen left, five to go. Dinner was in thirty minutes, it was 4:30 and they'd been working hard since 12. "Everyone else, run, I want one lap around the field, first ten to make it are on the team, make sure you yell the chant as you go as loud as you can, now go!"

Alpha waited for them to run back, happily noticing that Juliana was the first to return. She hadn't expected Juliana to try out, though now that it happened Alpha determined it made sense.

"I can't believe I made it!" Yelled Juliana, excited as she jumped up and down when she reached Alpha (first of all of them). "I mean, cheerleading, wow! I never considered myself the sporty type, which I guess is bad because the more physically active you are the better the full moons are suppose to be, but yeah I never did. Much less an _American_ sport, I mean no offence, but I mean, it's not like-"

"Juliana," Said Alpha, "Juliana calm down." She put her hands on Juliana's arms to calm her down. "Yes, you made the team, but calm down." She laughed lightly as Sirius came over and snaked his arm around her.

Juliana grinned widely and Sirius spoke up, "Congratulations," He said honestly. "But, er, would you mind going? Maybe using that energy on, I don't know, Remus?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively and Juliana laughed as he continued, "I have some plans here for Alpha now that tryouts are done."

"Thank you Sirius, I just had no idea I'd make it!" She said, "It was worth it to try out just to get Remus to do it, but oh my gosh I never imagined I would- you really want to have sex right now don't you?" Juliana finished with an awkward smile before skipping off with random squeeks to go find Remus and tell him, happily, that she'd make it.

As soon as Juliana started skipping, Alpha and Sirius started snogging. It was about when Sirius' hand reached up Alpha's shirt that she giggles and stepped back slightly.

"Sirius," She said, "We should go somewhere less... public."

Sirius dropped to his knees and pulled her down to sit on his lap, "Nah." He said, smirking as she giggled. Despite her Head Girl status, Alpha found herself having sex with Sirius on the Quidditch pitch.

-0-

"Thanks for taking me around the school, Travis," Said Letta.

Travis smiled lightly, "Just be quiet, okay? I don't want to get in trouble. Now, here is the bell tower, and here, here is the Quidditch Pitch."

"Woah," Said Letta. "It's so... big! Hey, is that Alpha? Let's go say hi! What's she doing? Is that a game? I think Sirius is winning, he's on top-"

"Letta, just, let's go somewhere else." Said Travis, jealousy running through his veins. He _seriously_ hated that bloke. It should be _him_ that she was sleeping with, he had so much more in common with her. They were both werewolves, older siblings, parseltongues, smart, and so much more! But _no_, stupid grey eyes got-

"Travis?" Asked Letta, "Travis you have to use the password."

"Oh, yeah, yes," Said Travis, "I'm sorry sweetie."

-0-

"Er, Alpha?" Asked Remus, "When are you starting tryouts?"

Alpha paced nervously, "As soon as everyone shows up."

"Alpha it's been twenty minutes," Said Remus cautiously, "I don't think anyone else is coming."

Alpha sighed, "Yeah, yeah, you're right." She started yelling to get everyone's attention. "Hey, ya'll!" She yelled, "Hey, come on, tryouts are starting!" The crowd of eight walked up to her, a little confused. They knew the team had a max of ten. "What? You think that just because you showed up means you instantly get a spot? No, that is not the case. I will have a team of three if only three of you show any potential!" Alpha sighed when she realized she had gotten their attention, and gave a supportive smile, "Now let's do this, start with a warm up lap around the quidditch pitch, you have three minutes."

"But the pitch is huge!" Objected one member of the group, Remus groaned.

"Well then hop to it!" Alpha said, starting the timer on her watch.

The small group ran around the field then, all making it within time, if just.

"Good, good," Said Alpha, fully smiling now. About half of the people there were from the team last year, assuming they didn't screw up too much she knew what they could do and that they'd made the team. Though he only tried out as a joke, Alpha knew she'd be hard pressed to let him go. As far as the other three, they seemed enthusiastic to join and plenty healthy so that that wouldn't be a concern. A team of nine would be odd for her, but thinking about it, they could make it work and the 9 symmetry would be nice. "Now, Izzi, Morgana, Nessa, and June I know you were on the team last year, so I want you in the back. I still need to see how you do, but Remus, Sue, Polly, and Fiona are new to me in the cheer world. Okay so, everyone line up, I want to see the back row in the windows between the front row, you're gonna need a lot of space so don't worry about separating too much."

The octet spread out then, Remus determining that he was actually going to try to get on the team, Alpha needed more than she had, he would do what he could to help out.

"Okay so let's go from Sue and then in order," Said Alpha. "I want you to call your name, grade, a hobby -other than cheer leading- and why you want to be on the team nice and loud before you do something, a split, a jump, something."

Sue nodded and started, "My name is Sue, I'm a fifth year, I love muggle music, and I want to cheer because it seems like fun." The 4 foot 10 inch girl smiled and did a split, her brown ponytail swishing to the side as she got up.

Alpha nodded and they continued, Polly was a sixth year who liked the uniforms (Alpha was amused by that, knowing the girl had enough enthusiasm regardless that she'd do good on the team), Remus admitted he was trying out so that Juliana would but stated that he figured, what the hell, might as well. Fiona was a seventh year, she had joined as a way to stick it to her ex-boyfriend, who had said that nothing run by a werewolf could be any good. Izzi and June were sixth years, Morgana was a fifth, and Nessa was a seventh, they were all returning because they had enjoyed being on the team the year before. Nessa had jokingly pointed out that the uniforms were, in fact, slightly awesome. After that, Alpha taught them a basic cheer and had them master that (it was a _very_ basic cheer). Hours later, only about thirty minutes before dinner, Alpha let them go.

"Congratulations," She said with a smile, "You are all the members of this year's Gryffindor Cheer squad, I'll be your team captain and I'll post the practice schedule up tomorrow morning so you all can let me know if there's any problems."

The team smiled and Nessa questioned, "So can we get showers now?"

Alpha laughed, "Yeah, go at it, locker rooms are open."

Remus came up to her as the team left, helping her pick up the pom poms and such.

"Oh hey," Said Alpha opening up the trunk for him to throw the rest into. She levitated it up and headed to the pitch shed, "Thanks for trying out. Having you on the team is a real lifesaver."

Remus smiled, "No problem, it could be fun."

"And now you have something to talk to Juliana about," Alpha teased.

Remus rolled his eyes, "We have plenty to talk about already."

"True," Alpha conceded, "Besides, it's not like talking is what you have in mind when thinking about her."

Remus laughed lightly and closed the door to the shed before they headed to their dorms, "I'm not even going to try and argue with you."

"That's probably best," Said Alpha. She checked her watch before continuing, "I've gotto run, rounds with James tonight and I still have to shower and eat."

Remus nodded, watching her run off in her gym shorts and t shirt, then shook his head. She'd done _so much_ to conform, not that she'd ever admit it, with growing her hair out, wearing skirts more often, learning the cleaning spells, hiding her werewolf-ness, cursing less, working on possessing a british accent, but she still stuck out so much. He supposed that was what made her her though, and when he got to his dorm and saw Sirius taking a nap on his bed, he knew that she never would.

-0-

"...mean, it's gonna work out, the symmetry of nine is nice and everyone at least shows potential, but it is so frustrating that I didn't really get to pick my team only because of _stupid_ prejudice," Alpha ranted that night on rounds with the Head Boy. "I'm sorry James, but you really should have known better than to bring it up."

James rolled his eyes with a smile, "Alpha, I asked how tryouts went and if Remus made it on the team."

"Exactly," Said Alpha, James laughed.

"Okay, so, new topic," James said. "How are things going with Sirius?"

Alpha looked at James with an odd expression, "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," Said James, "You're -to use your phraseology- a smart cookie."

Alpha sighed, "Look, I'm happy with what we're doing right now, but as far as the whole official relationship thing you're implying, I just, I don't know if I'm ready for that."

James stopped her then, putting his arm on her shoulder lightly to get her to stop before removing it. "Alpha, you _are_ in a relationship with him. You talk to him all the time, you flirt, you lived together, and as far as the physical aspect, you two are shagging like bunnies." Alpha looked down, thinking, and James continued as they reached their dorms. "Have you considered that it's not fair for you to hold on to John while dating Sirius? Or that none of this is fair to him?"

Alpha found herself unable to answer either question. Was it true? Yes, she decided, it was. She was still holding on to John. She knew it, everyone knew it. But, how could she not? John, John was _her_. They were one person, she couldn't just _let go_ of him, of herself. She walked slowly to her room as she thought, James watching her knowing she was thinking about it. When she got up to her bed, now changed into her pajamas and showered, she came to a conclusion that everyone else already had. She had to chose, Sirius or John. That night, she slept in the middle of her bed and cried.

-0-

Monday morning was a bad morning. JoAnna, a second year Hufflepuff, lost her Transfiguration homework. Alpha woke up groggy and tear stained an hour before the warning bell, unable to go back to sleep she got in the shower again and got ready for classes, something Sirius would appreciate as she looked even better than usual due to a need to compensate for a terrible morning. As far as James and Lily, James and Lily were feeling terrible.

Lily and James woke up at the same time the night before, but James was required to help stop a first years duel and that lasted until breakfast. Skipping getting dressed or even brushing his teeth, James went straight to Lily who was sitting and shaking on the seat closest to the door.

_Lily_

_James_

They went slowly to each other, not able to go any faster due to their sickness. They just sat there on the chair, James with his arms wrapped around her figure in his lap, for almost an hour.

"We can't live like this anymore," Said James.

"I know," Said Lily, "I just- we can't."

"We should start sleeping together," Said James. As the shock hit Lily face James backed up, "No, not, I mean not that I don't, er, I don't, I meant, _actually_ sleeping, you know, catching zzs? Dreaming?"

Lily smiled and leaned up to kiss him, "Yes."

"Uh-what?" Asked James, shocked.

"Sleeping, the actual dream type sleep," Said Lily with a smile, mocking his stammer.

James smiled and leaned down to kiss her, their kissing got more serious and the two of them missed breakfast, all the while both having sex on their minds.

-0-

"Hullo," Said Sirius, kissing Alpha on the lips, "Someone looks very fit today."

Alpha smiled slightly, "Thank you, not bad yourself."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sirius asked, concerned.

Alpha smiled, fake but convincing, "Nothing, really."

Sirius didn't get a chance to question further as the owls came, a jet black owl finding its way to Alpha.

"Oh my god," She said, rushing to open the letter.

_Dear Alpha Riddle,_

_Hello daughter, I am going to keep this brief because I am fairly certain that you will stop reading soon. I have been informed that you are Head Girl at Hogwarts, and I couldn't be more proud. As someone new to Hogwarts, it couldn't have been easy to get to where you are. This said, I still wish that you would use these accomplishments for the family cause. Believe it or not, blood ties us and there is a loyalty there, the Gryffindor in you should know. The time for your teenage rebellion is over, you need to come back to me, to the cause. You have significant skill, power, knowledge, and allies, all of which could be used for the greater good. _

_If you don't come over, I will be forced to punish you for your rebellion,_

_Tom Riddle_

Alpha had a small smile on her face as she read the letter.

"What is it?" Asked Sirius as she burned the letter, odd to him as she still smiled.

"My dad," She said, "He's proud of everything, wants me to join his cause and thinks he can ground me or something, but he's proud of me."

Sirius gave her an odd look, concerned about the grounding part, but not wanting to kill her suddenly good mood. He smiled then, honestly happy she was happy, if worried.

"Well there'ya go," He said, "Moldyshorts has a heart."

Alpha nodded, her face sobering up to her normal mood again, "Yeah, you're right, I can't forget he's who he is, I mean I burned the letter for Merlin's sake."

Sirius nodded, "Well, we should head off, Remus already went to class, and I can only assume that's where James and Lily are."

Alpha got up and stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth before grabbing some bacon as they left.

"Always going for the bacon, now that's my girl," Said Sirius.

Alpha smiled, her mood failing for a second as she was reminded that she had to choose. By the time she got to DADA, however, she was in a perfectly happy mood again, remembering the letter from her dad. She knew it was crazy but he was her dad, and he was proud.

Lily and James found themselves late for class, standing next to the others and seeing Alpha and Sirius. _Of course_, they thought, determining they needed to talk to their... educated friends.

-0-

"So," Said Liy, sitting on the edge of James' bed.

"Yep," Said James, also sitting on the edge.

"You know we've done this tons of times, I don't know why," Lily sighed.

"Because now we're planning it," Said James.

Lily nodded, "Well."

James laughed slightly and hugged her, the feeling of magic flowing back into them taking away all nerves.

"Does it ever freak you out how... right this feels?" Asked James with a smile as they crawled under the covers and Lily got in his arms.

Lily let out a breath of air that she'd been holding for a while, "Yes, very much so, I wouldn't have it any other way, but it seems just yesterday -and forever ago- that you were dating Aly."

James nodded, placing his chin on top of Lily's head, "Aly seemed so... serious at the time but now..."

Lily nodded, "I still miss her, and I know you do."

"I do," He said, "It's almost like Alpha's John, but more so that she helped me be the guy I am today, the guy who gets you, and I couldn't thank her enough for that."

"She thought we should be together," Lily said, "She told me once, she said, 'you two, you're going to be the ones that get hitched, but in the meantime, James is a nice guy, and I don't mind taking him for a ride while you get to your senses."

James laughed, "You ever consider how much like Aly Alpha is?"

"Too much," Said Lily, "Simply too much."

-0-

As Alpha ate her lunch, a good lunch consisting of a ham sandwich and chips, she contemplated telling the others about her plans. Well, her and Severus' plans. The problem was she promised she wouldn't, and then if she did it was determining who to tell, and convincing whoever that she should do it. No, it was simply too complicated. She sighed before diverting back to the conversation, Severus hadn't even contacted her again, as it stood there _wasn't_ a plan.

"Okay there is no way you can fit another french fry in your mouth," Said Alpha, Sirius only gave a messy grin before swallowing.

"I told you, they're chips." He said.

"Whatever they are, you have reached your limit," Said Alpha.

"Oh don't say that," Said Lily, "thats like daring him!"

Sirius grinned evilly, but before he had a chance to choke himself, Travis collapsed on the floor next to Alpha.

"Travis!" Alpha said in panic as he convulsed in his pain induced sleep, "Travis, come on, wake up!"

The Great Hall watched in as much silence as such a gossipy school could manage when Poppy ran up, shooing students out of her way.

"No, Miss. Omega," Said Poppy sternly as she levitated Travis out of the Hall. "He will need his rest, and in the meantime I don't need any distractions."

Alpha shook her head, "No, I can't leave him. I got him into this mess," She finished staying strong, _if he got poisoned for being a werewolf here, I'll never forgive myself_.

"Miss. Omega you are not coming and that is final!" Said Poppy, turning away and leaving the hall. It took James and Sirius to hold her back, Remus talking to her.

"Alpha calm down," He said, "Someone has to go tell Letta, and you're the only other one who can."

Alpha nodded, "No, I'm not telling her." She said as she stood still, "She doesn't need to know when there is nothing that she can do."

Sirius nodded, "You want to go?"

Alpha noted all of the stares she was getting and decided that, yes, she would go. She gratefully took Sirius' offer and left with him.

_He's a keeper, _John's voice rang through her head and with shock she knew that yeah, he was right. She smiled and kissed him lightly and he laughed.

"What was that for?" He asked, confused.

"Just, a thanks," She said.

Sirius gave her an odd look and they continued heading down the hall.

-0-

"Omega," Said Severus in the beginning of potions, interrupting her conversation with Remus about how dogs weren't allowed into Hogwarts. "Omega, we need to talk."

Alpha nodded, "We just finished our potion, if you're done we can walk around, Slughorn said we're free to leave once we're done."

"I'm done," He said, meaning multiple things. Alpha headed out with him, telling a curious Remus goodbye and grabbing her bag.

"So what is it," She asked.

"The potion will be done by the coming moon," He said. "I need to know if you will test it."

Alpha thought for the next couple of minutes, "I will, but I want to see the directions and ingredients before I do."

Snape nodded, "I'll give them to you with the potion in class the day of the moon."

"You make sure the others don't hear of this, okay?" She said, a hardness in her voice.

"You're as repetitive as you are loyal," He said.

"Okay?" She checked again, not willing to stop the line of questioning before she got certainty that she'd get her answers.

"Yes," He said, "I won't tell a soul."

Alpha nodded, "Well, bye."

Severus nodded as he watched her leave, _Why does this girl mean so much to the Dark Lord?_

-0-

"Thanks for bringing Letta," Said Travis with a smile as Poppy fretted over him, determining whether or not he was okay to leave. He felt fine, despite the anger still dancing inside of him, as if it belonged to someone else.

"No problem," Said Alpha, "I know I'd want Beta around if I got hurt. Of course, if I got hurt Beta would be the crazy obsessed one."

Travis smiled, "Did Beta stay in America?" He asked, curious.

Alpha sighed darkly, "Uhm, Beta was killed."

"Oh," Said Travis, "That really stinks, it must kill you."

Alpha agreed, "It's like.. I was supposed to protect him right?"

"I understand," Said Travis honestly, "I don't know what I'd do if Letta got hurt."

Alpha smiled as Letta, who was sleeping on Travis' bed, she'd been taken out of a nap. "She's great."

"I know," He said, "Thanks for being just so nice to her, most others just view her as something that can't defend itself."

Alpha shrugged, "She's sweet."

_Much like you,_ Travis smiled.

"I'm sorry," Said Poppy, "But you're going to have to stay here for the night."

"I feel _fine_," Said Travis, annoyed.

"Well you passed out in the middle of lunch and fell into a pain induced sleep, so you stay." Poppy said, heading to her office as an end of conversation.

Alpha laughed, "Never try and convince her you're fine, she'll diagnose you with something death worthy if you do."

"You still try," He said.

"True, but I'm American, I kinda have to be stubborn," She said.

He smiled, but then Poppy came out, "Miss. Omega, visiting hours are over, you need to go."

Alpha nodded and leaned to give Travis a hug, "Bye, come on Letta, let's get you back to the Chamber okay?"

Letta woke up almost instantly, "Sure, bye Travis!" She gave Travis a hug and the boy watched fondly as Alpha led Letta out, noting happily how great she was for the little girl.

-0-

"As you both know," Said Albus Dumbledore, "Gossip spreads through Hogwarts at a surprising rate. As Headmaster, I find it educational to pay attention to gossip. With this, it has come to my attention that you two have been sleeping together."

Lily and James were pretty sure this was the most awkward situation ever, in the history of the world.

"Well," Said Lily, "We've been getting sick if we don't, since the summer."

James nodded, "I know that as Head Boy I have to set an example, but as it stands we cannot do magic when we're not touching."

The Headmaster nodded, "That brings me to the next topic of conversation, we need to come up with a solution to your magic dilemma or you two are going to have to change your schedules so that you can attend all classes together, theoretical ones like Magical Theory would be the exception."

"We are planning on talking to Alpha," Said James.

"If you don't mind, Headmaster," Said Lily, "I would prefer we solve this ourselves, without, er, without you."

Thinking that sex was probably going to be the answer Alpha gave, James couldn't agree with Lily more.

The Headmaster smiled, "I understand, but by the end of next week, we will need you two able to do independant magic or we will change your timetables. If you don't mind," He said, standing up, "I have to go."

Lily and James stood up as well, "It's no problem." Lily said, "Have a nice day."

James nodded and they held hands, walking out of the office but not talking. They were both worried, as much as they loved one another they were both very happy with their timetables and didn't want them to change. Regardless, the lack of independence was becoming a problem that would only be a weakness in the real world. When they got to the Heads Commons they found Alpha and Sirius snogging unapologetically.

"Sirius," Said James, "SIRIUS! I need to talk to you."

"Alpha?" Asked Lily, "Me too."

"Subtle," Said James, Lily rolled her eyes and they separated as the two nodded, heading to James' room and Alpha's.

-0-

"So what is it?" Asked Alpha when they settled down in her room.

"We still can't do magic when we aren't touching," Said Lily. "And we feel sick, and the Headmaster said we're going to have to change our timetables to match if it keeps up."

Alpha nodded, "You're not going to like this, but sex is probably the solution. Bump up your bond to the next, I don't know what to call it, level."

"I know," Said Lily, "And I don't know, I'm not as against it as I thought. You know, I was going to wait until marriage and everything, right?" Alpha nodded and she continued, "But I- with James it's like we've been together a lifetime already."

Alpha nodded, "I think it's a good idea. Plux, shagging is fun."

"Well you would know," Laughed Lily.

"Yes, I would." Said Alpha with a smirk.

-0-

"So what's wrong?" Said Sirius, "Because usually when you catch me snogging you slowly back away."

James took in a deep breath, "Well, er, you know how the magic thing?"

Sirius nodded and grinned, amused and pretty sure that he knew what James was about to say.

"So I think sex might work," He said. "I just- what if she doesn't want to right? And regardless, I don't want people to ruin her reputation."

Sirius laughed, "James, Lily-flower most definitely wants to shag you, you should go for it. I've been saying since you got over Aly that you needed to shag a bird, and Lily is _the_ bird."

James laughed and sighed, "Ah but when."

"That's up to you," Said Sirius, "But me? Mate, I suggest soon."

-0-

"So how was your meeting with Dumbledore?" Asked Sirius in Alpha's room thursday night. He'd gotten in the habit of hanging (shagging) out with Alpha before his astronomy class.

"Pretty good," Said Alpha, "He said that he would think of a way to set it to a password that's not in snake language."

"That's good," Said Sirius, "I recon Travis is going to kill Malcolm and Morgan if it isn't changed soon."

"They're _constantly_ getting into trouble," Said Alpha with a smile.

"We could do that _right now_," Said Sirius.

Alpha laughed, "If we were going to get in trouble for this," She spoke in between kisses, "We would have by now."

"Ah," Said Sirius, "We just have to work harder at that."

Alpha broke out laughing and Sirius kissed her before continuing onto more inappropriate tasks. Afterwards as they lay in Alpha's bed, Alpha spoke up.

"So," She said, "Do you want more in this? Like, an official relationship?"

To say that Sirius wasn't expecting the question would be an understatement, "What did Remus say, because he has been nagging me about that for ages now."

"It was James who brought it up to me actually," Said Alpha. "But that's besides the point, do you?"

Sirius sighed, "I mean, I don't know, I'm not the dating type."

"Neither am I," Said Alpha, "but I got married."

Sirius nodded, "Yeah," He said, "But I know that you're not, I mean with John and everything."

Alpha laid down rather than sitting up on her elbows, "I can't hold on to John and hold a relationship with you."

"I know that," Said Sirius, "Which is why-"

"-No," Said Alpha, "That's the thing, I need to let go of John."

Sirius sat up on his elbows then, "Can you?"

Alpha nodded, "I can try."

They sat in silence past that, both of them taking in the conversation and digesting what it could mean before he left for class with Alpha and James, who were required to lead all Gryffindors to the class and back.

-0-

Friday is a common favorite day of the week. It's the mark of ending and beginning, an end to work and responsibility and the beginning of laziness and fun. The Marauders couldn't agree more on that specific friday.

"Good morning," Said Sirius, who had stayed in her room, something they hadn't done since Hogwarts started.

"Liar," Said Alpha, smiling regardless. She went to get out of bed and get dressed, but Sirius pulled her back and got on top of her.

"Nope," He said, "No school today. It's one of those rain days you told me about, when you get out of class."

"That doesn't work when you live in a castle," She said, "Plus I'm Head Girl, I can't skip."

Sirius laughed, "Look at you, you're turning _responsible_."

Alpha sighed dramatically, "I know, it's terrible."

"Well," Said Sirius, "Let's make it better, will you be my girlfriend?"

Alpha smiled, "Only if you let me get a shower."

"Can I join?"

"Nope,"

"Fine," He said, getting off and letting her go, smiling ridiculously as he watched his girlfriend head to her showers.

Alpha smiled, feeling very happy with Sirius. She'd thought it would be a terrifying to let go of John, but in reality, she felt so... free. Not that she would ever refer to John as a burden, but constantly feeling bad about him wasn't doing any good.

-0-

"Juliana," Said Remus, running to catch up to her, "Hey."

"Hey," She said, smiling as she carried her books.

"Did you hear?" He asked, "In an effort to support gossip, I bring the news of Alpha and Sirius' official dating."

Juliana laughed, "They lived together, those two were the only ones that thought they weren't dating, well them and Travis, but he is blinded by his crush."

"How Alpha doesn't notice is beyond me," Said Remus.

"She may know," Said Juliana, "Sometimes its just best for the girl to pretend she doesn't know."

Remus thought for a second, "That would make sense. So, er, I was wondering, would you like to go to the next Hogsmead visit with me?"

Juliana couldn't help but think how cute Remus looked as she blushed, Remus thought the same about her. "Yeah, sure," She said, "Well, this is my class."

Remus nodded, "Of course," He hugged her and then -after a split second of deliberation- kissed her cheek.

Juliana turned truly red as she headed into class, her mind on Remus for the rest of the day.

-0-

"Did you remember the spell?" Asked James,

"Yes," Said Lily, "Don't want any pregnancy, Alpha showed me how to do it. If it didn't work, they'd be pregnant by now."

James laughed lightly and moved in to kiss Lily, a hesitant kiss that got the two of them in the groove of things before they went about as far along with each other as they could.

"Do you think we're as loud as them?" Alpha asked from the common room, Sirius laughed.

"I don't forget the silencing spell, so no, we're not," He said.

-0-

Authors Note: Oh yey, a good ending, what am I going to do to pay for this? Should I kill someone? Or no, should I break up a couple? Muwahahaha! Reviews make me want to let all of my cherrys live! Wow that was a long chappie, it makes sense of course given all that happens in it but still.

Also, to my friends over seas, how is my British-English? I'm American and having issues with the differences.


	5. Chapter 5:It All Comes Crashing Down

**It All Comes Crashing Down**

"Welcome everyone," Said James looking down at the daunting amount of people, there were only two slots free for Merlin's sake! "To this years Gryffindor Quidditch Team Tryouts!" Beside him stood his team, Lily holding his hand. "My name is James Potter, I'm quidditch captain but my helper here, Lily Evans, will be working with me so feel free to come to either of us for any help." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Okay, we are looking for a keeper and a chaser so if you aren't here for those positions, please leave." There was some mumbling and then about half of the people left, James let out a sigh of relief. "So, as far as our team right now, myself and Fabian are chasers, Lily and Sirius here are our Beaters, and our Seeker is Mark." The crowd nodded, they already knew the team. "Okay, so get in two groups, to my right I want all of the people trying out for chaser, and to my left I want all my keepers, okay?"

The crowd separated, but one first year came up.

"James?" The young boy asked, "Headmaster Dumbledore has asked for you and Sirius."

"Well I am in the middle of try-"

"-He said it was really important," Said the little boy, looking very scared to tell the Head Boy he had to do something.

"What's your name?" Lily asked the little boy sweetly.

"Fred," He said shyly.

"Thank you Fred," She said, "James you should go, I'll head up try outs."

James sighed, "Sometimes I seriously hate being Head Boy."

Lily laughed and kissed his cheek before sending him off and starting the groups on laps around the field, if they couldn't fly they couldn't play.

James headed off with Sirius, going to the Headmasters office. "Headmaster?" He asked hesitantly as he walked in, "You asked to see me?" Sirius sat down with a look of confusion and concern.

"James," He said, making James nervous. The headmaster was a family friend, and outside of school he had always called James, James, in school though it was Potter. What news did he have? "Sit down, I have some bad news."

James sat down nervously, "Yes? Is Remus okay? Alpha?"

"They are fine," Said Albus, "It's your father."

James took a deep breath, "He's been sick for awhile, I _told _him to stop fighting."

Sirius got up then, not able to hear anymore, he left the office.

The Headmaster watched as James was waved with grief.

"I should go, Sirius-"

"You're free to go," Said the Headmaster, "You and the other Marauders are going to go stay with your mother at the Potter Manor next weekend for the funeral, but I wouldn't suggest going after Mr. Black."

James nodded, "Thank you sir." He said, leaving and heading towards his room, wanting nothing more than to sleep. _It's all just a bad dream_, he tried to convince himself, but he knew it wasn't. HIs tattoos turned a deep, sad blue and Lily's did the same.

_James?_ She asked in concern, _James is it alright?_

_I just need some time alone_, He replied, _can you run tryouts?_

_Yeah sure,_ she replied, but she was still scared for him. What had the news been?

-0-

"Sirius," Called Alpha in the Forbidden Forest, he had headed there right after getting the news and she'd followed him, however he knew the woods better than her and she was lost. "Sirius?" She sighed, "Point me." Her wand showed her the way to a distressed Sirius. WHen she got closer, she dropped the spell. There was no need. He was yelling at a tree, hitting it over and over so that his fists were bleeding.

"What now?" He angrily asked the universe, "What exactly are you going to take away next? Lily? James? Remus? Alpha? You've already got my family, my new dad, why not take the rest?!"

Alpha sat on the edge, just watching, making sure he didn't go overboard she he freaked out. She knew he needed to yell, she understood grief, if nothing else.

"_Why_ do you feel the need to test me?" He asked, "Why me? What did I do so terrible?" The rhetorical questions and violent tree punching lasted for the next hour or so before he simply didn't have the energy. Wiping the old tears off of his face, he turned to Alpha.

_"_Hey," He said weakly, "I'm sorry-"

"Nope," Said Alpha getting up and hugging him, "You shouldn't be sorry."

"How do you handle it?" Asked Sirius, "Your family and everything was ripped from you, how do you move on?"

They sat down by a tree, their backs resting on it.

"I didn't," She said, "For a long time I just didn't, but as time went on... The ache dulls, new good things happen, you move on."

Sirius sighed and Alpha healed his hands.

"I can't handle all of this," He said weakly.

"Then don't," She said, "Clock out, take a break."

Sirius laughed bitterly, "Now you know I can't do that."

"Exactly," Said Alpha, "So you feel like crap, but you wake up and get out of bed. You get breakfast and laugh when Remus is caught staring at Juliana, you live the life that Mr. Potter wanted for you."

"Not yet," He said.

"Not yet," Alpha agreed.

-0-

Throughout tryouts Lily was submerged in James' sadness, by the end of tryouts she was itching to go find him, the team knew something was up and offered to clean up. She thanked them and ran after him, finding him sleeping not so soundly in his room. Rather than wake him, she just slipped into bed next to him and slept, he calmed down almost instantly. Even though it was only five at night, they still slept like that until the hour warning bell the next morning, when they got up and headed to class.

-0-

Throughout the week, the Marauders seemed off, though the Hogwarts students couldn't quite pinpoint what the problem was. Those who were really astute would say that they were more dull than usual. Mostly, however, they were just defined as 'odd' or 'off'. James went through classes, with the help of Lily he was able to work on moving on. The two became, if possible, more inseparable. As for Sirius, Alpha found herself as his major source for support. Remus and Sirius were close, but Sirius came to her. After Remus managed to drag him out of bed in the morning, Alpha convinced Sirius to stay out of bed and in class. With his short temper, if Alpha had not been in a similar situation before, she would have told him to stuff it. However, she cared for him and simply would not give up.

-0-

"Mum!" Called James when they arrived to the Potter Manor via floo, "Mum we're here." They made their way through the Manor, finding the main living room with his Mum, who was staring blankly at the previous days Daily Prophet.

"Mum?" Asked Sirius softly, the tone breaking any and all hearts who weren't already shattered.

She looked up and gave an unimpressive smile, "My boys." She said, accepting hugs from them. "James, sweetie, would you mind setting everyone up in rooms?"

James nodded and Lily looked sadly at the broken witch, she wished Alpha could met the vibrant lady that she was before.

James looked to Sirius as they headed to their rooms, "Sirius would you mind if Lily-"

"Yeah," Said Sirius, "She's fine to stay in our room."

James nodded, there was no question that the brothers would share a room, the real question was if Lily would join.

"Remus you'll stay in Lily's old room," Said James, "And Alpha there's one across the hall right here."

Alpha nodded, "How about I just stay in room with Remus? There's two beds."

Remus laughed, "Bunk beds."

"OH MY GOSH WHAT?" Exclaimed Alpha with more enthusiasm than the entire group had had at any point in the past week. "I _love _bunk beds, Remmie can I _please_ have the top bunk?"

Remus smiled, and everyone around joined in. Alpha's unadulterated joy at bunkbeds was infectious. "Yeah, sure."

"Awesometastic," She said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Alpha," Said Sirius quietly, "Would you mind sleeping with, er, me?"

Alpha smiled and kissed him quickly, feeling bad that Remus was 'left out' as it were. "Even better."

Remus, for his part, did not feel left out in the least. However, Lily refused to let him be alone.

"Let's just add a bed to James and Sirius' room then," She said. "It'll be like old times."

James agreed and that was that. That night Alpha, Remus, and Lily worked ridiculously hard at keeping James and Sirius happy. The brothers, for their part, recognised the effort and tried to stay happy. All they were able to manage was fake, but the fake was better than nothing.

-0-

The funeral was large, hundreds of wizards came to see. The Marauders and Mrs. Potter sat in the front row, a sad bunch of people. Alpha couldn't help but wonder how many people were there solely due to political obligations. The Malfoy family was there, being as Alpha had known Lucius when he attended Hogwarts the year before, she knew he was only there due to requirements. It angered her, here this small family was, truly hurting a pain that so many never have to deal with, and they were all standing there silently for no reason other than political obligation. A funeral, in her mind, was not a place of political correctness, but a place for friends and family of the deceased to collectively mourn and respect the memory of the man or woman who died. She couldn't spend too much time focusing on that, however, as Sirius and James, mainly Sirius, needed her help.

So, despite her anger and resentment to the majority of the people there, Alpha kept her mouth shut other than small, appropriate for the atmosphere, jokes and supportive statements. At the reception she smiled, the perfect poster girlfriend. Many of the figures there recognised her just as much as they would James or Sirius, apparently it was not such a well kept secret that she had written the bill allowing werewolves into Hogwarts. She found that people had a mixture of opinions, and many were unreadable as far as opinions went.

After the funeral she had no surprise when she found both Sirius and James drunk, Remus even seemed to know they'd been sipping the 'adult' beverage. The drinking age in America was 18 when she left, but she hadn't really thought about it until that night. Of course, with the war, teenagers in Britain had more reasons to drink.

"I'm so pissed," Said Sirius abruptly. James agreed.

"You two aren't that drunk," Said Remus, but James shook his head.

"No, we're angry," He said, "So many people there didn't e-even didn't even know my dad."

As Alpha saw him slur, she considered that maybe he was that drunk.

"If I hear the phrase, I am sorry," Said Sirius, "One more time,I- I'm goi-nna explode." He made an explosion sound and moved his hands out before putting them back to their hugging position on Alpha's stomach. Alpha was sitting in his criss crossed lap. Lily and James were more modest in that Lily sat next to James, their legs touching as she leaned on him. However, for them, they kissed every so often, whereas the rest of the Marauders were kiss-less.

After not long the group fell asleep, happily enjoying one anothers drunk or 'buzzed' company.

-0-

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" A shrill voice screamed from the living room of 12 Grimmauld Place. It was June 26, 1975 and Sirius Black was going absolutely bonkers.

"WALBURGA BLACK!" He yelled back in a similar tone, not that it was really all that close, it took years of spite and misery to develop such a seriously spiteful tone.

"I'M SERIOUS YOU GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "IF SIRIUS IS ALREADY DOWN THERE, WHAT'RE YOU CALLING ME FOR?"

"SIRIUS!" Yelled a deeper voice, shit.

Sirius scrambled off of his bed and jogged to the living room, what was his father doing home?

"Can you tell me why you've been called down here?" Asked his father, sitting calmly on a two seating couch older than Mr. and Mrs. Black combined. They weren't angry, what type of person could fake that well? Clearly only ones with no soul...

"You have missed out on my sparkling personality," He said, smirking.

"No, Sirius, we have not," Said Mr. Orion Black. "Would you like to tell us who have been spending your time with at Hogwarts?"

"James Potter," Said Sirius, "Sir." He didn't say Lily Evans, he didn't say Aly Monroe, he didn't say Remus Lupin. There was good reason for that.

"A mudblood Aly Monroe," Said Orion harshly, throwing a letter to Sirius. "Has apparently spent a lot of time with you."

Sirius opened up the letter, it had a fancy hand address on the front, and when he opened it up he smiled despite the problems of the situation.

_To: Sirius Black_

_From: Lisa Monroe and Jeff Bolck_

_We would like to invite you to attend a wedding on June 30, 1976 from 11AM-6PM. The color theme is black and white, to RSVP reply back with the bottom checkboxes filled in. _

_Thank you!_

In Aly's predictable cursive there was a note below.

_I know it's last minute, my mum simply did not understand that she couldn't mail you the letter through the post, but could you please come? I'm inviting everyone else, it'll be nice to have everyone meet together! Maybe you can meet some muggle girls for your famous one night stands? :P_

_Have a wonderful day!_

_-Aly Monroe_

"Very casual," Orion commented, "you would almost forget she is a mudblood."

Sirius glared, "You stay away from her."

"Why do you work so hard to besmirch the Black line?" Asked his mother angrily, "We have given you everything."

"Your prejudice blinds you," Said SIrius, "It makes you ignorant and weak."

"Do not speak to us like that," Said Orion. "You will show us respect."

"No." Said Sirius rebelliously.

That night did not end well, and Sirius ran away, finding solace in the Potter Manor. Ever since that night Sirius knew he had a home, he knew he had a mother and a father (if not biological) that cared for him. Cut, still suffering from the cruciatus curse, bearing many broken bones, Sirius showed up helpless. For the help, he would forever be grateful.

-0-

"Mum?" Asked Sirius, "Mum I need to talk to you about something." Sirius had woken up at about 7 in the morning with Alpha in his arms, his first thought? _I'm going to marry that girl..._ With such a big thought in his mind, he would usually go back to sleep. However, that morning he felt particularly serious about it, and honestly he felt like talking to his mum. He felt like a little boy, still hurting from his father's recent death, and scared about his future with his girlfriend.

He walked into Mrs. Potters room then, knocking on the door lightly. Mrs. Potter was known to be an early morning riser, so to come to her at 8 in the morning was perfectly reasonable. He found her sleeping on the bed above the covers, clearly the death of her husband had affected her terribly. Sirius sat on the edge of the bed and shook her lightly, "Mum?" He asked, he knew she didn't like sleeping in. "Mum?" She was cold, she didn't wake up. He got on his knees for more leverage and shook her a little more, and found a piece of paper.

_My Boys,_

_I can never put into words how grateful I am for the two of you, strong, young men. You have grown intelligent, loyal, strong, and everything I could ever wish for. Though we aren't suppose to know, your father and I are so proud of what you have done for your friend Remus, no matter how reckless. James, I am so happy for you and Lily, you are clearly perfect for eachother. I am so thankful for your support in the family, I know that staying home over the summer was not easy for you to do but you can never appreciate the peace of mind it gave your father and I. Back to your Lily, James don't let her slip away. The family rings have been left to you, use them wisely. Sirius, I know that we argued about your leaving this summer to move to a flat in London (with a young lady nonetheless!), but you would not be you if you didn't feel the need to stop 'leaching' off of your father and I. With all of the hardships you have endured with your family before us, you have still turned into a wonderful man, but don't spend your life alone. The young lady whom you brought with you to the funeral (if I am right) is the one that moved in with you last summer, that sort of length in a relationship should not be ignored! I'm not saying she is or isn't the one (I've never properly met her) I am just saying there is no need for you to stay stag for life. _

_I have learned in life that there is no one answer to all things, that there is no one solution, but that there is one simple way to find repetitive happiness. Boys, find that way. Find that girl, have a family, love one another, don't forget what is important. Find your Harold like I found mine, and hold on tight._

_I will always love and appreciate you,_

_Jane Potter, Mum_

Sirius dropped the letter, "No," He said simply, "no no no no no..." He repeated the word, his volume staying standard but his voice getting more panicked. His heart rate quickened and his eyesight got blurry, his Mum couldn't be dead, she just couldn't, no!

-0-

Before the pack that Alpha and Remus worked so hard to create existed, there were the Marauders. A cat, stag, large dog, a fox, and a werewolf. Odd as they were, they were inseparable. As time moved on, they developed a sort of sixth sense that Alpha had barely even broken into in the beginning months of their 7th year.

"Sirius," Said Remus, waking up from a drunken sleep. He had barely had any alcohol, but he had a low tolerance. He heard the repetitive "no"s that the others couldn't, Alpha simply wasn't a tune yet, and Lily and James were so wrapped up in each other, Remus was pretty sure they could have an earthquake and they wouldn't notice. Remus headed towards the sound, his ears extra sensitive with the full moon only two days away. "Sirius what's wrong?" Before Sirius answered, and he did not delay, Remus had solved the puzzle.

"She- Mum- she killed herself," Said Sirius, angry but still quiet. He kicked the bed frame out of need to kick something and Remus walked up.

"Padfoot," He said, "Padfoot we need to tell someone."

Sirius nodded and kicked the bed frame again, Remus really needed to go to the Ministry of Magic, but he was worried to leave Sirius. He gave a high whistle, the frequency too high for a human to hear, so that Alpha would find them.

"I headed in here," Said Sirius, "to talk to her about Alpha. She never met Alpha, did you know that? I came in here to ask about marriage and she was dead and at first I thought she was just hungover, Mum never drank much, but she was, she was so cold you know? I went to shake her a little more and I found this note and -a-and the note was talking about how proud of us she was, me and James, and she told us to find someone, you know James and Lily was in there, and she told me , she said, she didn't know Alpha, but she knew how long we'd been sorta together and that we shouldn't ignore that. She said she wasn't mad at me for leaving in the summer, you know, because it was a very Sirius like thing for me to do, but she could have told me that in person you know? Because I can be serious when there isn't death on the line but I mean I guess I don't always act that way. She finished the letter she said that we should find someone, like how she found Dad, and to hold on. It was good advice really, but she killed herself so I wonder if it's really that good..."

Sirius continued rambling on, silent tears falling down his face as Alpha came into the room. She nodded at Remus, the shock of the dead mother hitting her hard and silent. Remus ran out, running to the fireplace and calling the Headmaster, hoping that he was okay to leave his friend.

Alpha went over and grabbed Sirius' hand, pulling him to a small couch in the room to sit while he rambled. She was fairly certain it was how he figured it all out, and she was right. So, she sat there next to him nodding and 'umhumm'-ing as he spoke, herself still dealing with the idea that Mrs. Potter was dead. She held his hand and when James came in, it occurred to her how truly alone in this world the two brothers must feel. She shared a knowing look with Lily who -herself- could not act as hurt as she was, she had known Mrs. Potter for six years. After fifteen minutes or so, the Headmaster finally made it.

When Albus Dumbledore walked into the room, James and Sirius stood up, blotchy faces standing as the only proof they had cried. It was with shock that Remus noted, having come in with the Headmaster, they were standing like soldiers for the coming war. Of course, he knew that's what they were, that's what they are were. Somehow, this group of seventeen and sixteen year olds had managed to get themselves intertwined in a war that would define the future of the wizarding world.

"Headmaster," Said James, Sirius nodded.

"James, Sirius," Said the Headmaster, "It goes without saying that I am-"

"Yes," Said Sirius, "We know, thank you."

Alpha thought Sirius was responding very well, considering not five minutes ago he was a rambling mess.

James and Lily's hands were connected, and Sirius' attractive features were hidden under tear-stained cheeks and a war hardened stature next to Alpha, whose eyes were trained on Sirius rather than Albus. Remus stood in between James and Alpha, honestly scaring the Headmaster with a look just _daring_ him to make his friend's days worse.

"Under these circumstances," Said the Headmaster, "I think we can agree that you may stay here until Wednesday, and return to classes on Thursday."

Sirius nodded, but Alpha shook her head.

"I need to be at school Tuesday," She said, "Can I return that morning?"

Lily, upset at Alpha for bailing on them, glared, but Remus gave her a dark look in return.

"Glare all you want," Said Alpha, upset that Lily was acting like she was. "I assumed you wouldn't want me to eat you on the coming full moon."

Lily nodded in understanding, Alpha forgiving her instantly.

"We have a basement that Remus usually uses," Said James, but Alpha sighed.

"I'm sorry, I am so sorry," Said Alpha, looking back at Sirius. "But I can't leave the pack for their first transformation this year, everyone knows where the chamber is and now that it's password not parselmouth... I worry."

Remus nodded at her, but the message was clear. She was needed, and he knew that, he, however, was not so he would stay.

"Do you have-" Sirius stopped himself, he was not a kid, he would not act like it. He was hurt though, why did she have to leave him? Of course, he explained to himself, everyone leaves him! Lily left him for James, and James for her. Remus for Alpha, Mum for Dad, Dad for, well Dad died.

Alpha's heart broke at Sirius' actions, but she couldn't stay. The pack needed her, if they didn't she could just wait till the next moon for Severus' potion. They did, though, they'd changed at Hogwarts before but not with everyone waiting for them to turn into monsters. Poor Letta was probably the only one keeping calm, and she wasn't allowed out of the Chamber!

The Headmaster nodded, "I understand, and we will need a Head for the Tuesday lunch prefect meeting, Miss. Evans you are excused of course."

"Thank you, Headmaster." Said Lily.

Albus sighed and waved his wand, sending the body to the Wizarding Funeral Home. he had done so to so many in the war against Grinwald, he was not happy to do so again.

" ," Said the Headmaster, "I will come right before lunch on Tuesday."

"Thank you Mr. Dumbledore," She said.

The Headmaster went to leave then.

"Headmaster," Said James, "I believe it is Phoenix protocol to debrief everyone after a member's death."

Sirius had a stern look on his face, and for not the first time Albus realized how smart these young men and women were. Wizards far beyond this groups age, combined even, who had spent long amounts of time with him had not figured out that he Order existed, much less about its policies. However, he could not ignore such a serious information leak.

"Who all knows?" He asked.

Sirius looked to James, he was much better at things like this and Sirius knew it. "Sirius and I, Lily, Remus and Alpha don't."

Remus and Alpha shared a look, what was Pheonix? Remus thought through it, it was obviously some sort of organization, and being as it was Mr. and Mrs. Potter is was most probably the good guys. A sort of secret good guys outside the Ministry regulations? It was clearly a secret at least, as Headmaster Dumbledore clearly did _not_ like that they knew about it.

"Is it too much to ask that it stay that small?" Asked the Headmaster, but it wasn't James who answered.

"Well you're sure as hell gonna tell me," Said Alpha, most definitely not liking being out of the loop. She understood why Lily, James, and Sirius didn't tell her (and Remus), it wasn't their organization, it wasn't their secret. However, she'd already done plenty of work worthy of being told what this was.

"Miss. Omega,this is a secret organization for Hogwarts gradu-"

"Do people in this organization face half the changes we do?" She said, gesturing between her and the rest of the Marauders. "I mean really, last year all five of us battled at Hogsmead, Lily and myself even fought Tom! While living with Tom was a more personal thing, me and Remus organized a program that saved lives of werewolves! Regardless we're all of age." Alpha had never been more happy that the age was lowered then, well other than when she found out that they weren't allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts until they were of age.

The Headmaster sighed, "Just because-"

"Fine," Said Alpha, "You're the dude in charge right? Of course you are, you're Mr. Dumbledore, have fun fighting this war _without_ me." She crossed her arms, 100% percent serious. She hadn't grown up in Britain, and felt no loyalty to the place (other than her friends...), her biological father gave her up, this wasn't _her_ war.

"You're not serious," Said James with shock.

"Like a heart attack," Said Alpha, "I get it, not your secret, all that crap, but look at Mr. Dumbledore's face, he needs me. I have more knowledge about how Tom works than _anyone_ and I'm his weak point. Besides, this isn't my war, I've already lost too much over your _stupid __**British**_ war."

"Hundreds of people," Said James, "Hundreds that would be killed, hurt, goddammit Alpha how could you leave all of that?"

"James," I said, "The only reason I'm here is because _your_ wonderful group of cops couldn't keep your fucking problems to yourself."

James and Sirius glared then, the funeral for their 'wonderful' head of the Auror department father was the day before.

"You keep your trap shut," Said James.

Albus Dumbledore looked at Remus, who nodded, these were either old or new emotions that regardless needed to be let out, the Headmaster took his leave then, leaving it up to the teenagers as to whether or not to tell the secret of the Order of the Phoenix.

"I am _so sick_ of keeping my mouth shut," Said Alpha. "You cannot even begin to understand."

"Oh what, because John died?" Asked James angrily, Remus blanched.

"Is that not enough?" Alpha challenged. "Because, fine, I'll just get a fucking time turner and tell past me to _not_ cover your tattoos, to _not_ publically attack Tom to save your sorry hide, and to _not_ tell Smith that raping Lily would kill him, a lie by the way." She huffed before continuing, "I mean _Jesus fucking Christ_ I didn't _want_ this war, I've been arguing against joining it since I was twelve."

"So you feel no loyalty to any of us?" Asked James, Alpha rolled her eyes.

"Look, I can't force you leave this, this is _your _war, James, you and Lily as Toms, like, number one target." Said Alpha, "But this isn't _mine_, these aren't _my_ people. I've already lost my family, I mean even my fucking _cat_ died for this, I feel like that's enough."

"I've lost my family too, Alpha," Said Sirius, quiet and bringing the argument to a more calm tone, which only made it more serious.

Alpha took a breath, "Sirius, your family, they either took themselves away by siding with a seriously bad dude, or fell to death by a disease known as life. My brother, mother, father, husband- all dead! I lost Mark too, and all of my friends. I lost my squad, my country, my school, everything! I'm just so _done_ with this war."

"Alpha," Said Remus, knowing he was probably the only one who could convince Alpha to stay, something that was a given just yesterday but now they all knew she was serious. "Could you really? I'm not talking about the feasibility, though Lord Voldemort being your dad you'd have a tough time with it. Could you leave Travis, Sirius, Lily, Malcolm, Morgan, James, me,Juliana, Letta, and everyone else?"

Alpha sighed and brought her hands to her face and then back down, pacing now as she had been for a little bit. The group watched her intently.

"I wish," She said, "But, no, not really." She sighed, "I'm sorry."

Remus smiled, "It's cool."

"You brought me out of moping," Said James, "Just needed a little splash of reminder that there's more to lose."

Lily shrugged, "It's not your war, and you can't actually yell at Voldemort, so, I'm fine with a little venting."

Sirius didn't say anything, but stepped away slightly when Alpha came to stand for him. She sighed, she sure had picked a bad time to yell.

"Sirius-"

"-no." He cut her off, hurt flashed across her face.

"Okay," She said.

Remus looked between the two, Sirius was seriously hurt, I mean the bloke had been planning to propose. Alpha, well honestly Alpha had screwed up, and it appeared she knew that. She'd been put in some crappy circumstances, and was still dealing. The procrastination, and her odd setup of one problem at a time was not working.

"So what now?" Asked Remus, "We've got three, almost four days."

James shrugged slightly,"Quiditch?"

Sirius lit up, excited at the prospect of beating the crap out of something.

"Sounds good," Said Lily, "Remus? Alpha?"

"Nah," Said Remus, knowing Alpha wouldn't want to, "I can watch."

Alpha nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

Sirius shrugged, "take turns as two on keeper?"

James nodded, "not it!" He yelled, running to the back field, Sirius repeated after him and ran off, Lily stayed behind.

"Alpha," She said, "Sirius will be fine, you two will make up, don't worry."

Alpha shrugged, "At this point... I really don't know, thanks though."

Lily jogged to catch up with them, but Remus and Alpha walked,not intending on playing.

"I really am sorry," She said, "I don't know what came over me."

"Alpha you're not coping," Said Remus. "All of that rage and hurt over what happened with John, your family, and Mark," he added the questioning voice over Marks name, not knowing who he was. "And you put it off, you said first, I'll deal with the loss,and you didn't, and then you said okay now I deal with the anger, but you didn't and then with all of this, this checkpoint starting us really in the war, it set you off. So that's what came over you, but Alpha? It's done now, the hardest part is over, and I forgive you."

Alpha walked for a little bit not saying anything, just thinking. "Thanks."

-0-

"Sirius," Said Alpha, "Sirius come on, if you're going to be mad at me you've got to be willing to talk."

"Apparently not," Said Sirius, still facing the other way on the bed.

Alpha huffed, wishing the others hadn't basically forced the two of them to resume old sleeping arrangements.

"I'm leaving in the morning," She said, "Come on we need to talk." She was already irritable with the full moon the next morning, and the concept of leaving without coming to some sort of peace with SIrius was not a good one.

"Alpha," Said Sirius, "I'm not mad."

"Oh yeah," Said Alpha, "Because when you're not mad at me you usually face the other way in the bed."

Sirius turned around, pecked her lips, and spoke, "Happy?" Before turning back around.

Alpha glared, "Fine then." She got out of the bed and left, going to the bunk beds in the room connected by the Jack'n'Jill bathroom. Sirius sighed, turning back over in the bed. He knew he shouldn't be mad, it wasn't like she was up to the point of marriage. Just because he'd decided it was going to happen, doesn't mean she had. He couldn't stop it though, it was just so angering that he couldn't imagine life without her, and today she had almost decided to leave the country.

-0-

"Here," Said Severus, "The potion, you should take it right before you eat dinner tonight."

Alpha nodded, "Documentation?"

He handed a bundle of papers and waited for Alpha to read through it, "This use of wolfsbane is brilliant." She said, "Assuming you are right that the lycanthropy is like a parasite on the person that's bit."

Severus agreed, "You checked to make sure you aren't allergic to jelly wart and toadstone?"

Alpha nodded, "I thought yellow root was a poison."

"It is," Said Severus, "It poisons the wolf."

"Duh, yeah, okay," She said, "Well I have to go, make sure everything is set up in the basement."

Severus nodded, "Don't let anyone see, as you so kindly reminded me, testing on students is strictly prohibited."

Alpha nodded, "You stay away from my pack and we have a deal."

"Where is Remus, by the way?" Asked Severus.

"With the others," Alpha said, "I know you know about James and Sirius' parents."

"Adopted," Said Severus, "They aren't actually his parents."

"I was adopted," Said Alpha, "And my mom and dad were just as much my mom and dad as your mom and dad."

Severus laughed darkly, "I doubt it." Then he left, leaving Alpha to stuff the potion and documents in her bag then zip it up and head downstairs.

"Abbadaba is a cow," She said, smiling at the password she created for the Chamber. She headed down the stairs and nodded at everyone in the chamber, she'd gotten more than a few nasty looks, as well as a lot of downright _mean_ comments, she understood why everyone was already in the Chamber.

"Well," She said, "It's five now, our curfew tonight is eight, does anyone want to go upstairs to eat? I will sit with anyone."

Morgan and Malcolm looked at each other, "We would like to go." Said Malcolm, obviously having his brothers support.

"Awesome," Said Alpha with a supportive smile, fooling everyone. Travis smiled, liking her utmost confidence that she never had. She was a much better Gryffindor than he, she was never scared.

"I'll stay," Said Juliana,

"Me as well," Said Travis, "I figure I might as well, Letta."

Alpha nodded with understanding, "Well I'm gonna make sure the cages are chill then head up, that fin with you two."

Malcolm nodded, and Alpha headed out.

Before she got to the pens, Travis walked up.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"What?" She asked, "Nothing."

"U-hu," Said Travis, disbelieving and clearly not willing to drop the topic.

Alpha sighed, "I got in a fight with Sirius, but it's no biggie."

Travis smiled lightly, "Hey, it'll work out, and if it doesn't, no worry, there's plenty of fish in the sea."

Alpha smiled and said thanks as he walked away, not feeling the slightest bit better.

She went to the pens, ten in total, and re applied the silencing, strengthening, and cushioning charms. She transfigured some pebbles into rabbits, having something to attack was best for the wolf. After an hour of checking and rechecking, Alpha determined she was done and took her backpack off, taking out the potion and downing the disgusting flavor in one gulp.

"All Right," She said, huffing and puffing through the pain, "Let's do this." Once she got out to the Chamber she put her elbows out, allowing for Malcolm and Morgan to loop their arms through hers. "So here is the song I'm gonna sing, try to sing along. We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz..."

Thanks to the singing, the trio went to the Great Hall in high spirits. However, such spirits were hard to keep.

"Shouldn't you be in your cage?" Asked a snarky Ravenclaw, shoving past them into the Hall.

Alpha rolled her eyes, "Ignore her." She said to the boys, usually she'd have a snarky comment, but she was a leader in many ways at Hogwarts, it simply wasn't an option. She wished, not for the first time that day, that Sirius were here with her, or even not mad at her. Sirius could make snarky comments, and he would, and then he would kiss her oh so very publicly and few would bug them after that. As if to prove that he wasn't there, however, another came up to them.

"Get out of here," Said one Slytherin, flanked by four or more of his friends.

"No," Said Alpha to her fellow seventh year, "And being as I am Head Girl and you just discriminated against werewolves, you will enjoy detention this friday night and then saturday class."

The boy rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand "You don't get it, you aren't coming in here."

Severus rolled his eyes as he walked in, not saying anything. Nott was one of the many Hogwarts students lined up to be death eaters, however he was stupid and the Dark Lord knew that, which was why Severus knew to watch out for Alpha, and he did not.

Why the Dark Lord was concerned with Alpha Omega was a puzzle to him. She was adopted, so maybe she was pure blood. What was so special with this one pureblood though? She was a werewolf, fine, tons of werewolves supported the Dark Lord. Why not? It's not like his opponent had much to offer them. However, past that, there was nothing to indicate she would even consider _not_ fighting against him, much less joining him. Not only had she attacked him publically at Hogsmead, showing an obvious dislike, but she was friended with those Marauders. A group of people that the Dark Lord was wise to not underestimate, did he view her as a weak link? If so, if she was a potential Death Eater, why exactly was he forbidden to tell her about the Dark Lord? Why could they not actually approach her? Why were they not recruiting her?

"Nott," Said Alpha, "That's going to be the next Hogsmead visit that you just lost, now move."

Nott sent a cutting spell at Morgan, which was blocked by Alphas wandless shield. She quickly moved her hand to have her wand as a cover, not wanting Nott to know what she could do.

"Bad idea," Said Alpha, stunning Nott, "You four, leave, now."

The four behind him ran out then, and the Headmaster came up.

"You handled that well," He said, levitating Nott and heading to the Hospital Wing.

Alpha let out a breath of air as she walked in, joining the Hufflepuff table with Malcolm and Morgan.

"Would you pass the mashed potatoes?" Alpha asked Alexis Purdue, not knowing her but knowing she had the mashed potatoes in front of her.

"The mash?" She asked, "Yeah sure."

"Alexis here is a right mate," Said Malcolm, introducing the girl to Alpha.

"Alexis?" Alpha asked, "I've heard about you, I owe you a thanks. You've been really good, you set a good name for Hufflepuffs, better than these two at least." Alpha ended with a smile.

"No problems," Said Alexis, "unless of course you plan on finishing the mash."

Alpha laughed and passed the potatoes back to Alexis.

"Hey Morgan," Said Alexis awkwardly, "Did you get the potions assignment?"

Morgan nodded and spoke, "Yeah, it's not bad."

"Not bad?" Alexis asked, "Could you help me then? Because I'm swamped."

Malcolm hid a grin, focusing on his carrots.

"Yeah, sure," Said Morgan, awkwardly smiling a bit in return, "Yeah."

"Cool," Said Alexis, the conversation dying down.

Alpha sighed as she ate, she knew she had to eat, but her stomach was all in knots. Not nervous knots, mind you, but actual knots. This potion was hurting her, but, she reasoned, if it made the change allow her to keep her mind and control, then she'd happily take the pain.

"You okay?" Asked Malcolm, "You're not eating much."

"Oh yeah," Said Alpha, "I'm fine, no biggs."

Malcolm nodded, but Morgan didn't look convinced as he finished his stew.

"Okay," Said Alpha, looking at her watch. "We'd better head back guys, our curfews about up."

"Hey," Alexis pulled Morgan back as they went to leave, "You be careful okay?" She kissed his cheek then sat down, blushing as bad as Morgan as they headed to the Chamber, Malcolm snickering.

"Okie dokie guys," Said Alpha in the lobby. "I locked up the front door, nobody can get in tonight, and nobody can get out until sunrise, no exception."

Juliana gulped, "I wish Remus were here..."

Alpha sighed, "He'll be fine with the others though, it'll be okay." She gave Juliana a hug and they headed to the cages.

"Rabbits?" Questioned Travis, "That's a brilliant idea."

Alpha nodded, all serious now. Her head was hurting now, _Jesus Christ this potion better work._

-0-

Travis woke up the next morning on a torn up, bloody bed. He grabbed his pants and walked out, checking on Letta. The girl was sleeping soundly, her tiny chest moving slowly up and down. He smiled, he'd heard about Alpha's pack by word of mouth, and it had done a lot of good for himself and Letta. He headed to Alpha's pen then, if he were honest he was hoping to see her topless, but talking to her was a good too.

"Alpha," He asked the sleeping figure laying down on the bloody mattress. She hadn't woken up yet. "Alpha?" He went up to her and shook her slightly, she still didn't wake. She was ridiculously hot, as if running a fever. After trying to wake her up a little more, he was more worried. He grabbed her cloak, frowning when he noticed it was Sirius', and wrapped it around her, grabbing a belt and tightening it as a dress around her. No-one else was awake so he took her up himself, cursing the fact that there were no heads there, he couldn't grab her clean clothes after dropping her off. "Madam Pomfrey, we need help."

"What is it?" She asked, pulling on her robe as she stood up, setting down her hot tea. "What is wrong with her?" She asked as Travis set her down on a cot.

"I don't know," Said Travis, clearly worried, "She's really hot, and won't wake up, also she's not usually this bad after the changes, this cut up."

Poppy ran a diagnostic spell, "I'm not sure why, but she is comatose with a high fever, probably due to her broken ribs, leg, arm, and a number of lacerations. It's the one on her face that I am really worried about, this one here on her cheek right below her eye, it's cut very deep. Now, you should go while I work, get her some clothing, get dressed yourself."

"I can't get into the Heads dorms now, Potter is gone somewhere, so I'll stay thank you."

"Don't take that tone with me young man," Poppy replied sternly. "Now you go, I don't need you crowding me."

Travis glared and decided he would go get dressed, check on Letta, and return. When he got to the chamber, Juliana whistled.

"Someone is looking nice," She commented. "You get all undressed just to walk Alpha to her room?"

"Alpha is sick," He said, leaning into his room (noticing Letta had moved to hers) and grabbing a shirt.

"Oh my gosh," Juliana said, jumping up, "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know," Travis said, "She's comatose."

"OH my god oh my god oh my god," Juliana chanted, standing up and heading to leave.

"Poppy won't let you in," Said Travis. "I'm going to wait outside."

Juliana nodded, "Come get us when she's out?"

Travis nodded, but he was already heading out. "Juliana, watch Lett for me."

"Totally," Said Juliana, but Travis was already gone.

-0-

"Have you seen Alpha?"Sirius asked everyone at the table, "Travis?"

Travis looked up at Sirius Black, Sirius Fucking Black, why was he talking to him? "I haven't seen her since this morning, after the change." It wasn't a total lie, and besides, something about Sirius had been eating her up yesterday, it was best that he just stayed away.

Sirius frowned, worried. He had hoped she'd be waiting for him, if not him at least the others.

"Come on," Said Remus, worried but knowing they needed to go to class, "We've already missed classes."

-0-

"Juliana," Sirius said, running in the hallways after Transfiguration to catch up to her. "Juliana, have you seen Alpha?"

"Have you?" She asked, clearly worried, "Something happened last night in the change, Travis had to run her up to the Hospital Wing, I was going to head there now, but last I checked she hadn't woken up, that's why I wasn't at lunch. I feel bad because I teased Travis, very fit by the way, for not having a shirt but it was obviously because he was in a rush, Alpha was wrapped in your cloak and Travis' belt."

Sirius was gone by the time she said Travis, applauding himself for listening to the story.

"Slow down boy," Said Travis, standing up outside of the room. "Pomfrey said we can't go in right now, she's changing Alpha into some clothing."

Sirius glared, "Hadn't seen her since this morning?!"

"No need to yell," Said Travis, "It's not like I lied."

"Not like you-" Sirius' anger caused a sort of stuttering, "What is wrong with you? You _know_ we're dating, why wouldn't you tell me?"

"She was already upset because of _you_," Travis replied, getting angry himself. "I wasn't going to have you here, messing up her healing because you're such a mutt."

"Oi!" Yelled Sirius, "You get your ruddy nose out of our relationship."

Travis laughed shortly, "'Relationship'?" He rolled his eyes, "You two _shag_, there's nothing past that, what do you even have in common?"

"A bloody large amount," Sirius yelled back, "Clearly she disagrees with you, I don't see her living with _you_."

"Oh yes, a debt, that's a great basis for a relationship." Said Travis.

"She knows she owes me nothing," Said Sirius. "I mean it's not like the flat isn't in her name too."

"Whatever," Said Travis, "I saw no need to tell you."

"Because why?" Asked Sirius, "You're a bloody twat?"

"Because you don't care about her!" Travis exclaimed, it was then that the other Marauders, Juliana, and the twins came, coming in a large group.

"How would you know?" SIrius hissed, "All you do is lurk, it's not like you've bothered to do anything other than try and get into her pants!"

"What's going on?" Juliana asked Remus, who was opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"Uhm," He said, "well basically, Sirius just found out that Travis did not tell us what happened to Alpha and that Travis has a crush."

"Ah," Said Juliana. As Lily and James headed to calm them down Remus sighed.

"Times like now, I'm happy that I'm no longer a prefect," Said Remus. "This is their problem."

"Calm down," James said.

Sirius ignored his brother, Travis followed suit.

"Who is Mark then, Mr. I-Care-About-Alpha?" Travis asked with a smirk, knowing that Sirius didn't know. "He's her kid, just so you know."

Sirius glared, "She's never had a kid."

"I know that," Travis said, esasperated, "Legally, she's his guardian, or was."

"You two shut it!" Lily yelled, James smiling at her when it was apparent it had worked.

"Now," Said James, "Madam Pomfrey needs Sirius, he's wizarding next of kin right now. Travis, you can go to the Chamber, now, no arguments or I'll dock house points."

Travis glared, but left none the less.

Sirius got worried then, why did they need next of kin? How was he next of kin?

"Don't worry," Said James, grabbing his shoulder for support. "You're next of kin because you lived with her this summer, remember Remus' name wasn't on the bill."

Sirius nodded blankly, of course, usually they would call the father but the Headmaster had known better than that, and with wizarding law the way it was-

"Mr. Black," Said Poppy, "Please take a seat."

Sirius sat down, looking at Alpha as he did. She didn't look particularly rested though, her breathing was staggered and she twitched ever so slightly in her sleep. She had a scar on her face, arm, and leg, getting bigger as she moved down.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not sure," Said Poppy sadly, "For some reason her transformation was particularly bad, though I'm not sure what caused the coma. The cut on her face shouldn't have caused that."

"So what do you need me for?" Sirius asked.

"She's an adult," Said Poppy, "So we don't have to contact her father, but we do need next of kin to decide if we should move her to St. Mungos or not."

"St. Mungos?" Sirius asked, "Is that really necessary?"

"Not now," Said Poppy, "And considering her... condition it may not be the safest idea, but with her coma and ribs..."

Sirius nodded, "I think-" What was he kidding? He didn't know this, who was he to decide any of this?

"I would suggest she stay here tentatively," Poppy said helpfully, noticing the young man's struggle. "If she still is in her coma in a week, however, it would be simply too much, I wouldn't want to be the one to work on her past then."

Sirius nodded again, "That seems a good plan, is there anything you can do?"

"I can try," Said Poppy, "To end the coma tonight, but I have to wait a little bit because of the potions I gave her. I can't promise that it will work, it usually doesn't."

Sirius nodded, "I'm going to wait here."

Poppy nodded, "I am going to let the others in now, there is a chair right by her bed."

Sirius was already in the chair, holding Alpha's hand, determined not to leave.

-0-

Authors Note: Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6: I'll Stop the World and Melt

**I'll Stop the World and Melt With You**

It was five in the afternoon, Hogwarts students all around were going to dinner. It was a Tuesday, and just like the Tuesday before, it was roast that the house elves of Hogwarts provided for the many students who came to eat. They brought this roast to the Chamber, as per usual, to feed the little girl Letta, a girl they were all smitten with. However, on this day, like those of the past week, they also brought dinner to the Hospital Wing. Sirius, Malcolm, Morgan, Remus, Juliana, James, Lily, Travis, and Alpha were all there. Alpha, of course, was not eating the roast, she was in a coma, and people in comas don't take breaks to eat roast on Tuesdays.

On the bed next to Alpha's, James and Lily sat. They didn't hold hands, they were eating, but they were touching. Ever since sleeping with each other, they enjoyed not only independence but a closer bond. Of course, the joys of this seemed unimportant in light of the Potters deaths and Alpha's coma. As they sat they made chit chat, not truly capable of holding a serious conversation so simply ignoring the real issue.

"We've got to take another extra round tonight," Said James apologetically to Lily, who sighed.

"Why?" She asked, obviously not mad but curious.

"Well, the seventh year boy Slytherin prefect went missing, Severus Snape, and with Alpha gone we've got two prefects out." Said James, "Being as I'm Head Boy, I get the extra rounds."

Lily nodded, she didn't want to be separated from James for the entirety of rounds, and was happy they'd been grouped together. "With both Alpha and Snape out, things are going mad."

James nodded, "I worry about Snape, but not half as much as I do Alpha. Every day the chances of her getting out-"

"I'd suggest filling that mouth with potatoes before finishing that," Said Lily. Looking down at Sirius, sitting on a chair between their bed and Alphas, holding her hand as he already scarfed down a minimal amount of food.

James nodded, "Pomfrey must really like Alpha, otherwise I'm not sure why she is letting us all camp out."

"The pack's really close," Said Lily, "Alpha and Remus basically saved them from death, and Alpha's the leader, I doubt Pomfrey could get them out any more than you or me."

James agreed, "Those guys, more than us, I think are why she's so adamant about this war. She see's them as her responsibility, her kids."

"She does mother them," Said Lily.

"She's going to be that mother with eight kids," Said James.

"Good," Said Lily, "Because I'm not going to be that mom."

James laughed, "Good, I doubt I could live in a house with enough kids for a Quidditch team."

"We would be great coaches though," Said Lily. "The Potter team would be very good."

"How about Potter-Black-Omega?" Asked James, "We get Sirius and Alpha's future kids too, that way we're only at a couple kids, not seven."

"How about the Marauders? Throw Remus in there too."

"Great idea," James said, going to turn to an unresponsive Sirius and ask him what he thought.

Sirius, for his part, did not reply. He didn't want to think of a future, right now he just wanted Alpha to be better. He wanted her to wake up, be healthy. Thinking about the future, a future that may be without Alpha, was not an option. She wasn't up, and she wasn't healthy though, so he had to decide what happened. The other night, James had explained to him the age old legal set-up that had made him next-of-kin. See, if Remus had his name on the paperwork, the situation wouldn't have occurred, but he had refused to have his name on the paperwork because he hadn't been able to pay to purchase the flat. With this, legally the house was Alpha Omega-Riddle's and Sirius Black's together. This joint property ownership had created a Wizards Union, basically boyfriend/girlfriend with legal rights. As she was 17, and in a Wizards Union, Poppy had -thankfully- informed Sirius Black (instead of Tom Riddle) of her situation, thereby fulfilling her legal obligations and keeping Alpha safe.

"Is he okay?" Juliana asked Remus, the two of them sitting at the foot of Madam Pomfrey's desk.

"Not really," Said Remus, "Him and Alpha have been dating for a long time, though they don't know it, they still feel like it. Alpha being hurt, right after Mr. and Mrs. Potter, it's hitting him hard."

"I could tell," Said Juliana, "Especially after that fight last week, also I swear I didn't mean anything by calling Travis fit."

Remus grinned, "It's no worry, you don't owe me anything. I never even took you on a second date."

Juliana did not have a reply, so instead went back to the topic of Travis and Sirius.

"Poor Travis has been waiting on the edge ever since though," She said. "Watching Alpha, checking up from afar."

"Well," Said Remus, "Considering he hid the fact that Alpha was in a coma from all of us, I see Sirius' point."

Juliana shrugged, "Alls fair in love-"

"Well this is a war," Said Remus, his voice unusually stern. "And we all care about Alpha, that was a selfish thing for him to do."

Juliana, for once, did not reply.

Poppy stepped out of her office and beckoned, "Black, I need to see you."

Sirius got up, kissed Alpha's cheek, and went into Poppy's office.

"Have you decided for certain on moving Miss. Omega to St. Mungos?" The Healer asked kindly, knowing the pressure she was -necessarily or not- putting on the young man.

Sirius sighed, "I worry about her safety, after the attack over the summer, I'm hesitant to move her to such a public place."

The nurse nodded, aside from the Headmaster and Headmistress, she was the only of the staff to know the full tale of the Marauders, she knew exactly what the risk of moving Alpha was. However, Alpha's coma was concerning and she simply wasn't specialized enough to handle it.

"She would be in a ward for people who are threatened," Said Poppy. "They are well prepared."

"For Moldyshorts daughter?" Sirius asked. "I think it's a good idea, but one of the Marauders needs to be with her at all times."

"I don't think it is safe to assume that Tom is out of St. Mungo, he is not even out of the government," Sirius said.

"Fair," Said Poppy, "Fine, but you can't miss class, only two can go at once, and you're the only one that can stay overnight, as you are next of kin." She didn't mention that she couldn't stop Sirius anyway, she thought it best to keep the ammunition of knowledge out of his grasp.

Sirius nodded, "We should explain what's going on to everyone out there."

Poppy nodded and Sirius stepped back, letting her go first.

After explaining why she was going, where, and who could visit, Travis quickly replied.

"What so only the special four get to visit?" He asked hotly, "If I remember correctly none of the special ones were there last week."

Only Juliana knew about why they had been gone, which seemed to be the reason she objected before Travis was killed by the Marauders.

"We have just as much a right," She said. "And we have proved trustworthy."

"We can't risk-" Sirius said, but Malcolm interrupted him.

"We're her friends too, Sirius," Said Malcolm. "Just because we're not 'special' friends doesn't mean we aren't as important."

"You've known her barely a year," Said James. "You haven't fought with her, and you haven't fought for her."

"You've known her just a year," Said Morgan, speaking up.

"Morgan is right," Said Remus. "As a member of both groups, I've got to point out that they're her friends like us."

"More so," Said Letta, "In a way, she saved us from certain death."

"She saved us too," Said Lily. "I still agree, they pack, they're just as much hurt by this as us, and they're clearly good witches and wizards considering how fast they learned everything."

Sirius was about to say something when Poppy turned to him.

"You have final say," She said, "but I agree with Malcolm."

Sirius was about to reply absolutely not, but then he stopped. He knew Alpha would want to see her pack, and he knew that logically, they had a point.

"Fine," He said, "But since Malcolm and Morgan are so young they have to at least go with each other."

Morgan nodded, "Fine." Said Malcolm and Poppy explained the rest of the situation to the group.

"...Black will be the only one who can stay overnight, however." She finished with a sigh, "Well, they are waiting for us so we should go. Black, I need you to come, pick someone else to come as well."

"Lily," He replied instantly, but Lily shook her head apologetically.

"Sorry," She said, "I have rounds with James tonight."

Sirius nodded, "Remus it is." He said, not giving Travis even a sideways glance.

Travis glared at the group as they left, frustrated. What made them so special?

-0-

"She's going to be okay," Remus said from his standing position across the room. Alpha had been settled in for about fifteen minutes, and all Sirius had done was sit in the chair next to her and held her hand.

"Yes," Sirius said, "I know she will, it's just _when_."

Remus sighed, "Were you serious?"

"About?" Sirius asked, looking over at his friend of six years.

"Marriage," Remus said, "When you were rambling after you found your mum-"

"Oh," Said Sirius, pausing for a little before nodding. "Though, I should probably wait until after graduation."

Remus thought for half a second, "Congratulations."

"I wish I knew why she was like this," Said Sirius.

Remus couldn't agree more, "Whatever it is, she probably knows."

"I wish she would have trusted us enough to tell us," Sirius said.

"She probably knew we'd stop her," Remus said.

Sirius shrugged and stayed silent until Remus left, 45 minutes later, so he would be back before curfew.

"So," Said Sirius, "I was reading up on comas, which are bloody terrible, and some said that you could still hear what was going on. Or, that muggles could, but I don't know, anyway, I am going to talk to you. I know you hate not knowing what going on, but everything has been going plenty fine. Remus and your pack are getting on fine, Alexis -that fifth year- is practically escorting the twins around. Lily and James are even closer, constantly touching you will be happy to know..."

-0-

The smoke outside of the house gathered as Alpha and her family sat around the fireplace in New York City, New York, United States of America. It was December, and the chill outside had the entire family appreciating the fire. Alpha was sprawled out on the floor in front of the fire, almost like a cat, with her stomach up, her hands behind her head, and her feet basking in the warmth of the fire. On the chair about 3 feet from her head was her younger brother, Beta. He had dark brown hair, and his skin tone was hispanic, in contrast to his blonde hair blue eyed older sister who was about as white as you could find, in America that is. Alpha was adopted, her parents first child, as a baby. Their parents sat on the couch together, her mother, a tall woman with black hair and brown eyes, and her father, also a tall person with brown hair and brown eyes. Her father was a programmer with INTEL, hence the Alpha and Beta names meaning first and second in reference to program testing. Her mother was a stay at home mom, she cooked, cleaned, etc.

Alpha looked at the fire mystified, she had started the fire, young witches and wizards like her were allowed to use magic within their own home in an effort to allow them to practice before they were allowed to, at age 18, do magic in the real world. She was going back to learn more magic the coming Monday, only a day away. The next day was a day of chores, packing, and saying goodbye, but, tonight, Alpha was just watching the fire, appreciating the break she had. It was times like these she was happy she had not left with her father when he came those many years ago, though recently she had started sending letters to him. The fire popped, and Alpha waved her hand, forcing the fiery bit of wood back into the fireplace. Not really registering the chorus of thanks, Alpha couldn't help but think this fire was like her relationship with John. Fire popped, just like them. They were both the most sought after of their gender for their grade, as well as a couple above, and as such, everyone thought they should be together. Unfortunately, they didn't. Alpha wasn't so much hating on John with this, she knew he was attractive, it was just that, with him, everything was amplified. This included anger, and her spitfire attitude mixed with a doctorate in sarcasm combined with his infuriating calamity leaned towards a more fight filled friendship than relationship. Regardless of all of this though, they were friends. As they were both quick witted, and the smartest of their class, they were constantly working together on projects, it had been like this for ages, and they worked together really well.

The last project they had worked on had actually been finished the day before, it was a muggle studies project that they were doing on muggle movie styles, they had watched a ton of movies, and with the notes that John took during them Alpha wrote up the final report. Of course, John was going to read it over on Monday at school. The night before they had watched was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a movie both of them laughed at the entire time, both explaining to the characters a quick stupify here or bombarda there would do good, of course the main actor Marilyn Burns knew that, as she was a witch, which was really the reason the jokes were funny. About halfway through the movie, a spider appeared on the drivers seat of the car, scaring Alpha into Johns lap, and then out through the window on his side when he threw her out. She banged on the window as he laughed, sinking into his seat and turning red with laughter as he rolled the window back up. After a couple of seconds Alpha sat on the hood of the car, right in Johns line of sight. After a couple failed attempts to get her to move, he got out of the car and sat on top of her.

"Oh get off!" She said, shoving him off of the car and into the ground. He laughed and grabbed her foot, pulling her down on top of him. "Ow!" She said, landing on top of him. He laughed, she huffed. She rolled off and propped up on her arm, the perfect angle to see the movie. He sat up, criss-cross-applesauce, and like that, they watched the movie. Another death happened, but Alpha's mind had traveled away from the movie, and she screamed and jumped back, right into John's lap. He, who had also been slightly scared, hugged her, both of them not questioning the action. It wasn't exactly normal, but it just felt so normal, so standard, so nice. For the rest of the movie, they stayed like that. At some point their hands intertwined, and later, Alpha and John rested, Alpha leaning onto him lighter, and his grip on her softer, less urgent.

When the movie ended, they stood up. Alpha blushed as John's face looked lost as to what he should feel when they un-clasped their hands.

"Well, yeah, we should probably get back to my house." Said Alpha, looking down and trying to stop the blush.

John nodded, thinking she was ashamed and regretting of what happened, "Yeah, your parents will want you home soon."

"Yeah," She said, laughing, "Though Beta is probably more nazi about it."

John smiled, it was a reflex, she was laughing. "Yeah, probably, your _younger_ brother is so protective, not even wanting you to do school projects."

Alpha smiled, reminding herself that was all it was, a school project. When they got to her house, he walked her to the door.

"See you later," He said, she smiled, not trusting herself to talk. They exchanged and awkward hug, and Alpha went inside.

As Alpha's memory of the event faded she thought. Her and John often brought up a warmth, but it also brought a burn. She remembered the many arguments they had gotten in, the many times one of them overstepped the line. She took a deep breath and looked at the fire, those burns still hurt sometimes.

With a yawn, Beta got up, "See ya Alpha, I'm gonna hit the sack."

Alpha nodded, "Me too, well, I'm gonna lay down."

Their parents nodded, "We'll probably stay out here for a bit." Said Alpha's mom, her dad winked.

"Oh god," Said Beta, Alpha laughed.

"Just be chill okay?" She said, "I want to have nice memories of you two before I go back to school."

They exchanged hugs, and Alpha went to bed. She got nostalgic as she entered her room, it was the last night she would sleep there this year. She layed down on her rainbow comforter, and then smiled, she liked her bed, she liked her room, and she was happy she always packed the blanket to school. She slept peacefully that night, and groaned when she woke up. Today was the mass packing, cleaning, and general chores day.

"Meow!" Moaned her very white cat, whining due to the lack in attention, at 9am.

"Oh shut _up_!" She yelled at her cat, the cat just moaned again. She grabbed her wand just sent a jolt of magic at the stupid cat, which only resulted in yet _another_ moan, even louder than before. Alpha finally opened her eyes, to a green cat.

"What?!" She said, jumping out of bed, "Oh mom is going to _kill_ me, maybe, what do you think Excalibur? Will she notice? Nah..."

She did.

"Alpha Omega Riddle, _what_ did you do to this animal?!" Alpha's mom screeched, barely covering up her dad and brothers laughter.

Alpha walked into the living room slowly from hers, as she had been packing, "What do you mean.." She asked slowly, glaring at Beta and her father as she walked into the pit of the devil.

"You know _exactly _what I am talking about, now what did you do to this poor creature?" Her mother asked, controlling her anger.

"Well," Said Alpha, "What happened was.."

"You know what," Said the very mad mother, "I don't care, just fix him, now. We, to mean me and your brother and father, are going to go to the parent meeting for Beta's school, the cat'd better be white when we get back."

Alpha nodded and chased the cat for about three minutes(shooting a variety of spells that really should have fixed the problem) before she caught him, threw him into the bathtub, and filled it with a quick _augmente_ spell. The cat was thoroughly soaked, and also thoroughly green.

"Now you listen here Excalibur, you are not a green cat, you are white, so get that into your tiny little head." He meowed, and Alpha huffed. She sat down on the edge of the bathtub, he wasn't going to jump out, once you got him in the water, the stupid cat remembered he loved it. In fact, the problem often was he played too much. Unfortunately, when she sat down and leaned over to pet the cat, the doorbell rang, and the cat jumped out of the tub, opened the door (this was a very smart cat), then ran out to guard the household from whatever threat was at the door. As the cat did this Alpha not-so-gracefully fell into the tub, soaking her shirt and the top of her pants. She then got up, snatched her wand, and ran to the door.

"I'm sorry we're bu- John?"

"Uh, hey Alpha." Said John, he had come in hope of doing some brave manly thing guys did in chick flicks, but now faced with the actual task, he wasn't so sure about it.

"So, are you here for the paper?" Said Alpha, confused, he had never been worried about her quality of work before, "Because, it's done, but I thought you were going to review it at school..."

"Oh, uh," Said John, "Yeah, I just, if like, er, you know if it needs to be edited we need time to rewrite it."

Alpha was confused, she wasn't suppose to have people over when her parents weren't home, but this was for school, and they had kind-of implied John was an exception.

"Alpha?" Asked John, his mind was racing, he shouldn't have come here, it was stupid, and now she thought he was some crazy stalking guy, she would never like a stalker. She'd probably call the cops and have him arrested. Then his parent's would disown him, and he would never get a job!

As he was panicking about this he stared off into space, unfortunately it made Alpha award of what she was wearing, her wet clothing. She began to blush a bright pink.

"Oh, yeah, come in, sorry, mind is spacing." She said, letting him in, "Uh, I'm going to go change, if you see a green cat, can you catch him? Thanks!"

"What?" Asked John, awkwardly walking into the main room of the house. She was already gone then, fully red, heading to her room to change shirthey and pants. He looked around as he waited, and he couldn't help but to notice the very non-Alpha-ness of the house. It was perfectly neat, and the colors were average, beige and white, a little of a pale yellow. Wait, green, what? A very very very green cat was streaking through the room, followed by a newly dressed Alpha.

"Get here you _stupid_ animal!"

With a crash and a bang, she caught the furry beast, "Got 'em."

John laughed, "What happened to this little guy?" He went to pet him, and the cat hissed, obviously not welcoming the touch.

"Ha, he hates you too." Said Alpha, "We can now start a club, he only hates the two of us. Anyway, some accidental magic got him like this and my moms not all for it."

"Okay, well, here," Said John, waving his wand and turning the cat white again, "There we go, back to normal."

"Wah?" Asked Alpha, "How did you do that?"

John shrugged, "Just a simple reversal spell."

Alpha shook her head, "Great, you know how many reversal spell's I tried?"

"I guess I am just better than you," Said John with fake modesty, "Ow!" Alpha had hit him.

There was an awkward silence, "So, do you want to look at the essay now?"

"Oh, well, yeah, yeah, that's why I'm here, yeah." Said John, he had forgotten his cover story for coming. "Well, no, actually, I trust it's a good essay, so, nevermind." He said, getting a short burst of bravery.

"O-kay," Said Alpha, confused now, why was he here then?

"So umm," Said John, "I lied." He settled on that approach, short and simple. Mostly, he just couldn't say much more. His stomach was going crazy, _This is a girl thing! Why is this like this? Why am I such a girl?_

"Hu?" Asked Alpha, confused. _What did he lie about?_ She didn't understand, why was he just coming over and saying he lied? He kept licking his lips, a nervous habit she had noticed he had many moons ago. _Speaking of moons, I need to make sure to pack the bandages and stuff to donate to the clinic... Why am I thinking of this now?_

"Yeah, I didn't come here for the essay, I know you did a good job, you've done a good job for ages now, I don't see why that would change now." Said John, Alpha just looked at him, and he realized that now she had no idea why he came. "See, uh, yesterday was really fun." Alpha nodded, what was going on?

They were standing awkwardly now, Alpha gripping her left arm lightly with her right, the cat had run away. A little under a foot away, stood John, tripping over his thoughts trying to do what he had planned to do. He was so confused, _he is so cute._ Alpha mentally slapped herself, now was not the time for thoughts of how cute John was.

"And uh," Said John, "Well," He bit his lip again, "I was wondering if..."

_Is he asking me out?_ Thought Alpha, _nahhh, John isn't exactly the type to get nervous, yeah, dang, wait, not dang! What is wrong with me?!_

John took a deep breath, _Come on man!_ He lectured himself, _where is that self confidence?_ He fiddled with his glasses and went to sit down on the couch.

"What?" Asked Alpha, sitting down next to him, "If _what_?" She asked, her heartbeat getting faster. _What is he? Is he gonna? No. nah... Nope..._

John then took a deep breath, _what the hell, why don't I use a pick up line? Worst case scenario, she laughs. That's pretty bad..._

"Hey so you're the most liked girl in the school, and me the guy, so we should date, it's like a rule." He said.

Alpha had actually replied positively to pick-up lines in the past, which is actually part of the reason she responded the way she did to John.

"Get out." She said, a calm angry, "Get out of my house, I'll send you a copy of the essay, edit it alone and turn it in." She looked him straight in his eyes, "We're done here."

"Whai-t, Alpha, no, I wasn't-" Said John, at a loss, not knowing what to do. Wishing he knew the words to clear this up.

"OUT!" She yelled, jumping off the couch and angrily opening the door. As he walked out ashamed, her eyes teared up. She slammed the door behind him and ran up stairs to her bed, jumping on it and kicking off all of her pillows and covers.

"FUCK!" She said, just wanting to express her anger somehow. The tears were gone, she was just mad. She kicked the air, and unfortunately hit the alarm clock. Now, the alarm clock was right by the window, and when she hit it, it flew out of said window, thankfully the window was open, so it went through it and into John's face.

After being kicked out John had driven down the street, then turned around when he determined he would try something with her he had never tried with a girl before, he would literally just tell her how he felt. He had walked out of his car to see Alpha's little temper tantrum, right before he could escape he was hit in the face with an alarm clock.

"OW!"

"JOHN! I am so so sorry!" Yelled Alpha, climbing out of the window onto the porch roof then out onto her lawn to John. "oh my god, I so didn't mean to hit you, you, are you okay?"

John moved his hand away from his forehead, "No blood, but seeing as I already got injured and I figure it can't get worse, I want to start out by saying sorry." At this point Alpha stopped trying to help and just listened, "It wasn't cool, I just clammed up and didn't know what to say. I'm really sorry, and I don't want to lose you."

Alpha smiled then, "It's fine." She accepted his apology fully as she stood up and helped him to join her. "Let's get you inside, we've got a first aid kit and if it's not too bad, I'm fairly okay with healing spells-cheerleading and all."

John nodded, he was bad at healing and besides, he wasn't exactly trying to leave. She grabbed his hand and lead him into the bathroom, instructing him to sit on the counter. She grabbed her wand and waved it, "Okay, not bad, I can heal it." She waved her wand again and he smiled.

"Pain's gone, thanks." He said, getting off of the counter and leaving the room. "So I guess I should go-"

"Not a chance in hell mister." She said, pulling him back in the small room by the back of his shirt. "We both know your parents won't miss you and you might have a concussion. You'll stay in the livingroom."

"You don't have to-"

"John, let me be nice, please, I just hit you in the face with a flying alarm clock." She said, exasperated. Just as he was about to reply that, sure, he would stay, Alpha's parents and brother came home.

"Alpha?" Called Beta, who was interrupted by his mother.

"ALPHA IS THE CAT BACK TO WHITE!?" She yelled, clearly still upset by the semi-accidental magic. Alpha went into the living room with John at her tail.

"Yes ma'am," She said, "I hit John with an alarm clock to the face from my window to him in the front lawn, can he bunk on the couch?"

Her father stifled a laugh as her mother sighed, exasperated. "Why is it that whenever one of your friends needs help, you somehow rope it into being your fault?"

"Excuse me, Mrs. Smith?" Asked John, "Uhm, not to sound ungrateful to the healing and all she did, but Alpha did hit me with the clock. It shot out of her window and hit me when I was walking to the door."

Alpha smirked, that was one way to put it and now that he wasn't hurt, she was very amused at her actions.

Noticing her daughters smirk, Mrs. Smith sighed. "Then, I guess, we owe you -at least- board for the night." She and her husband, though not Beta, knew of the boys home life. "Now Beta," She said, "off to bed, you have school."

The boy groaned, but went to his room regardless. Soon after Mr. and Mrs. Smith went to bed as well, leaving John and Alpha in the livingroom in sleeping bags on the pull out couch.

"You really don't have to stay out here," Said John, feeling bad that Alpha wasn't sleeping in her bed.

Alpha shrugged, "Mostly I just don't want to deal with the cat. he has determined that since I turned him green he deserves my bed."

"Just kick him off," Laughed John.

"Have you seen that cat?" She asked, "Despite the fact that I do kinda of feel bad."

"Oh yes," Said John, "Because your experience with color changing magic is that it hurts the object/living thing."

"Hey, don't doubt my ability to change simple magic to violence." Said Alpha, "Plus I didn't use a color changing spell, I just kinda shot magic at him so I really don't know if it hurt."

"You ever notice how much the two of us still do accidental magic?" Commented John in response. It was true of course, both Alpha and John were both known for turning a simple spell super strong, or messing up when they had something else in mind.

"It works I guess," Said Alpha, "Anyway, considering I'm pretty sure it's why we were always partners as middle schoolers."

John nodded and didn't reply. Before they hit the high school part of Alma Aleron there weren't any advanced classes, so that wasn't the reason for their partnering. However, this year they were freshmen, and with that came the opportunity for advance classes, which meant that they were able to chose their partners more frequently and regardless teachers liked putting them together.

They didn't talk from then on, choosing instead to sleep. They had school the next day, and the earlier they got there, the quicker they could sign in and then screw off one final day before classes.

-0-

Authors Note: Well that's that, a sneak peak into Alpha's American life, yes? Tell me what you think in the reply section and I'll love you forever!


	7. Chapter 7: Waiting and Waiting and Waiti

**Waiting and Waiting and Waiting Again**

* * *

Alma Aleron was a large school in New York City, as it serviced the north eastern students of America as well as others from across the country who chose to go there rather than the school they were districted for. There were seven 'houses' where new students would pledge to go to, and if they were accepted would stay until their graduation. If they weren't accepted, they would get assigned to another house. The Zombie House -Greek name Hermes- was characterized by perseverance and the ability to adapt to any situation, their uniforms were yellow and black. The Vampire House -Greek name Ebrus- is characterized by being dramatic and very serious, their uniforms are red and black. With pink and yellow colors, the Pixie House -Greek name Aphrodite- are characterized by their persuasion. The jocks of the school belong to the Werewolf House -Greek name Ares- which is the more military set up, their colors are slate grey and burgundy. Most of the genius' of the school come from the next house, the Igor House -Greek name Hephaestus- who are known for their mathematical thought process, they're very logical and known by their acid green uniforms. Lastly, there is the bigfoots. Bigfoots are friendly, hard working people. Their Greek name is Apollo and their colors are orange and blue.

On their first day back from break Alpha and John walked onto the school campus with high hopes.

"Well," Said Alpha, "I've got to set up in my dorm, meet up around 2 in the library?"

John nodded and gave her a sideways hug before walking into the Werewolf house. Alpha watched him walk in and smiled lightly before heading to her own dorm, Bigfoot.

"Hey guys!" Alpha yelled as she entered the Bigfoot house, feeling at home with the mix-matched furniture.

"ALPHA!" A fellow sophomore yelled, running down the stairs. Katrina's thick black hair was up in a ponytail, her think bangs masking her face of joy at seeing her best friend.

"KATRINA!" Alpha yelled with the same happy tone of voice. They hugged and stepped back before heading to their dorm. "So," Alpha asked, "how was your break? Have a good Hanukkah?"

"Very good," She said with a smile, "We went down to Florida, spent time with my Dad's family. What about you?"

Alpha shrugged, "Nothing too crazy, turned the cat green."

"You kissed John didn't you!" Katrina said, jumping up and down with excitement as her pink faced counterpart unpacked.

"Yes," She said, knowing there was no use lying about it happening, "But it's no big deal, I mean, I've kissed tons of guys."

"Not, you can't fool me so easy," Katrina said. "The two of you live on the landmines of your sexual tension, this was bound to happen. Let me guess, during one of the muggle movies?" As Alpha blushed deeper Katrina laughed, "I so told you so, this is great."

"Seriously though," Alpha said, "It's no big-"

"Don't bother lying to me," Katrina interrupted.

"Look," Alpha said, frustrated at her embarrassment. "I have to unpack, and dinner starts soon, can I do that."

Katrina rolled her eyes, "Fine, don't forget that you scheduled the cheer meeting tonight."

Alpha nodded and continued putting her stuff up in her closet/dresser and desk.

Alpha did not set her dorm up like a dorm, it was her home while she was there and she didn't intend on being a guest there. She had two small tubs under her bed, one for spare sheets and blankets, and one for her record player and records, something she was known to bring out frequently. It had been a gift from her biological father in Europe and one of her favorite possessions. Her bed was, like the others in the room, a thick wood framed twin mattress. Unlike the others, however, her bed was charmed to look light yellow (though the charm was taken off when she left for breaks) and her rainbow quilt, something she had made as a child, with matching pillow case was atop it. She also brought two spare pillows, donning rainbow quilted pillow cases on them. On her desk she had a typewriter, paper, pens and pencils, a framed picture of her family, a variety of books, and all of her school supplies. Where her desk was school focused, her closet/dresser combo was not (excluding, of course, her potions kit on the floor). In the closet was a built in dresser on the right half with a mirror-door covering the cubby like compartment on the top. Alpha used her cubby for her money, letters, her camera, and anything else she wanted even slightly hidden because the top cubby of everyone's closet was charmed to only open at a tap of the owners wand. She used her drawers to hold her shirts, pants, sleepwear, underwear, games (she had Monopoly, Uno, and a deck of cards), and her last one she used for random things like spare bags and film. Hanging in her closet she had dresses from past dances, her cheer uniform, a bath robe, jackets, her jeans, and shoes. To finish filling her well organized (and filled) closet on a small shelf above her hanging portion of her closet, Alpha kept her towels and bathroom like things. Due to the (charmed to be blurry glass) doors covering her closet and dresser, the closet was not the popping part of Alpha's windowed corner of the dorm, the walls were. Alpha's walls were a light pink charmed to stick to anything she put on the wall and tapped twice with her wand (another double tap removed it).

As Alpha left the room when she finished packing, her fellow dorm mate Mary thought that the reason she never got in trouble for her walls was simply because it was advanced magic that the girl had essentially made up in a project her second year, and the teachers were scared of the large amount of uncontrolled magic the girl so obviously possessed.

Alpha pulled her hair into a ponytail as she walked down the a stairs into the common room. Those in the big foot house usually spent time in the upstairs living area, but whenever someone from other 'houses' came over, they were only allowed in the downstairs living area, and Alpha was hoping that John was there.

"Hey, there she is!" Katrina said, "John look."

Alpha rolled her eyes, only just waving off the blush from her face. She would never admit how happy she was to see John.

"You here for the paper?" She asked with a grin.

"I'm not sure, will you chuck an alarm clock in my face if I am?"

Alpha shrugged, and Katrina rolled her eyes.

"Of course any kissing with you two involved is violent," She said as if she should have known.

"You two kissed?" Asked Jacob, Johns friend who came partially because he had a thing for Alpha.

Alpha just winked at him and Mary, who had just walked in, laughed. She walked up to Jacob and grabbed his hand, the couple smiling at each other. Mary knew about Jacobs puppy love, but did not hold it against Alpha. She had seen Alpha try to have a relationship before, it hadn't worked. Why? Most of it was that guys just got to jealous, then controlling, because -no matter what Alpha did- she constantly had guys chasing after her and guys just didn't get it. That was part of the reason she thought that Alpha and John would be such a great couple. While John was protective, he had girls chasing after him and understood that, yeah, it was fun, but that was because in some cases it was best to look at the (granted obvious) upside.

"It's not exactly a shock," Mary said, "I mean look at them."

Katrina agreed, "It's always the jock and the cheerleader, or have you never seen a movie?"

"Most of the movies I watch are filled mostly with explosions and gore," Jacob said.

"Okay, okay," Said Alpha, "As much as I enjoy my physical relations with guys, can we pick another topic?"

John nodded, "I second that."

"Fine," Said Katrina, "But we are talking, tonight."

Mary nodded in agreement as they headed out, by the time she had nodded -however- John and Alpha were engaged in a conversation. Mary murdered to Jacob.

"Oh yeah," She murmured, "Those two aren't a couple at all."

Katrina nudged Mary and pointed slightly at their intertwined hands by their closely connected bodies.

-0-

"Hey, James," Lily said lightly, as if Alpha were sleeping and she didn't want to wake her, as she entered the room at St. Mungos.

James looked up from his book, "You've been a bad influence on me." He said with a smirk as she sat on the two seating chair next to him, she smiled and laughed lightly.

"Really now?"

"Really," He said, "I'm reading now."

Lily smiled then took a deep breath,

"What is it?" James asked, concerned and confused.

"I was called to the Headmasters office because they wanted to inform me that I'm new Quidditch Captain." She said softly, feeling bad about stealing his job.

"What?" James asked, angry, confused, sad, and a mix of other negative emotions. His body slumped, how could they do that? He had earned that position, it wasn't fair for them to just take it away.

"You haven't been getting the job done, sweetie," Lily said. "I've been running practices for the last week and a half, you don't even show. You're not sleeping, and you've lost weight. You've got missing assignments in all of your classes."

"I'm going through a rough time and you know it," James said harshly, leaving Lily hoping they wouldn't fight again, they'd only just gotten on again and that was only because they dropped the issue.

"I know," Lily said, "But James, all of this responsibility isn't helping, and regardless, you can't have a job you're just not doing."

"You're my helper" He said, "Its your job to help me out with being Captain!"

"Yeah," Lily said, "Help, not do, there's a difference."

James huffed, much like a young child, and Lily sat next to him on the love seat type chair he was in.

"James it's okay," She said. "Everyone understands, with everything that's been going on-"

James sighed, "You're probably right, I can't keep up Head duties and Captain duties."

"That is not the problem," Lily said. "You can lie to the others, fine, but you can't lie to me."

"Lily you don't actually know what's going on in my head." James said, anger fueling harsh words he would regret later.

Lily gasped internally, over dramatic, she knew, but a fair definition of her opinion on his response. "That's only because you refuse to tell me! You've shoved yourself into this bubble of pity where you refuse to talk about it! You're being such a prick about all of this and you're hurting everyone around you. You have to talk about your parents, you just do, and there is no way around that."

James glared at Lily and stormed out, upset with her. How could she not understand that he was not strong enough to talk about it, he had barely accepted it happened yet; how could be possibly talk about how it was hurting him? As he got to the floo and headed back to Hogwarts the anger didn't leave, but the anger was joined by a combination of the feeling of death flowing throughout his body (which, if you didn't assume already,was an unpleasant feeling) and a pang of realization that, yes, he was angry, but he was most probably wrong. Once getting to Hogwarts he felt the all too familiar draining of his magic and he sighed. On so many levels, arguing with Lily sucked.

Back in the hospital room, Lily was in tears. She felt all that James had, that and betrayal. How could he just leave her? Rather than feeling angry, she was just sad, more sad than she could ever remember feeling. With James, she never thought that anything could separate them. Granted, she never in a million years thought his father would die and his mother would kill herself all right before Alpha went into a coma for mysterious reasons. Now though, feeling uncertain, Lily felt as if her world was falling apart. How could she have been so stupid? She was Lily Evans, he was James Potter, they were school sweethearts, not an old married couple. Why had she thought that it would last?

"Oh Alpha," She said, looking at her sleeping friend. "I know that this is a terrible reason, but I need you back. I need a girlfriend again, I need someone who understands me and James." She gave a watery chuckle as she waved her wand and cleared away most of the evidence of her tears. "You're gonna give me hell for life if you remember this when you wake up, aren't you?"

Minutes after Lily's confession, Sirius ran in. He stopped shortly at Alpha's bed, looking her over and looking at the clipboard that magically monitored her status, he let out a breath of air. She hadn't woken up, but she also hadn't died.

"Where's James?" He asked Lily, taking the seat next to Alphas bed that nobody else bothered to sit at, because they knew it was Sirius' seat.

"Heads duties," Lily said, not ready to accept herself that she'd had a fight with James, much less talk to someone about it. Besides, she justified, Sirius was worried enough about Alpha as it was, he didn't need to worry about her silly little problems.

"Ahh," Sirius said.

"Yeah," Lily agreed, "How was astronomy?"

Sirius just shrugged and Lily sighed, the situation with Alpha was killing him inside. Lily knew it, James knew it, Professor McGonagall knew it, heck even the cat that someone had snuck into the school that hung out in the dungeons knew.

"Well," Lily said, "I've got to go, homework."

Sirius nodded and Lily left, he wondered briefly why Lily wasn't doing rounds with James before talking to Alpha, letting her know what she had missed.

"It's me again," He said, "Sirius. Not much has happened, Morgan asked Alexis to Hogsmead. Malcolm's been teasing him for ages, trying to get him to do it. Alexis said yes, which I was surprised about. That Snape prefect is still missing, I don't know what they care, he probably just skipped out to join Tom..."

-0-

Cerys Whitehead was a nurse at St. Mungos who worked in the POSI Wing, People of Special Interest. Her best friend, Keira Stanley, worked with her.

"Who is he?" Keira asked about the boy in Alpha's room.

"Sirius Black," Cerys said, "With the Black stereotype, I was expecting a rude lunatic, but he's actually really sweet. For the first couple of days all he did was read books on comas, and in that he read something about the people being able to hear and ever since then that's what he does."

"I feel bad," Keira said as they worked on the room, checking on the girl. "In the POSI wing with a teen boy as her next of kin? She's got a rough life."

"A brilliant boyfriend too," Cerys said, "But I'm fine with my Hogwarts age boyfriends in trade to not be her." Keira nodded, "Well, it's 12:30, our shifts off, let's head to the pub, Lexer is already waiting."

"Oh you just want to shag him." Keira laughed as they walked out.

Slipping in after them, Tom Riddle smiled lightly, happy the nurses were gone. He slipped past Sirius and went to the other side of Alpha's bed.

"Hey sweetie," Tom said, he noticed her mind shields up, full alert. He really didn't know how long she could keep it up, he squeezed her hand. "It's going to be okay, I have Snape and he will pay if this doesn't work out."

Sirius stirred in his sleep and Tom shot a low powered sleeping spell at him, not wanting anyone to know he was there.

He stood up and walked out, murmuring as he left, "I don't care how many die, you will get better."

-0-

"I really don't need to go," Sirius objected the next afternoon.

"Sirius," Remus said, "Lily is captain now, if you miss a practice there's actually a problem."

"Besides," Juliana said, "You can't drop everything."

"Alpha would kill you if you got kicked off the team," Remus continued, not wanting Juliana to be victim of Sirius' ever shortening temper.

"Fine," Sirius said, kissing Alpha's cheek before storming out.

"She's got to come back soon," Juliana said. "Sirius is tearing himself apart."

"If anything," Remus said, "She is needed for the team. I'm happy she planned out the entire season, but the squad is missing her."

"She's needed so much at school, much less in the war," Juliana agreed as they sat down.

"Both sides have basically paused, waiting for her." Remus agreed.

"There's also the obvious," Juliana said. "That we miss her."

Remus agreed, but didn't get a chance to say so as Travis had just walked in. Remus glared fiercely and Juliana rolled her eyes.

"Well," She said, "I have Herbology homework, and I really don't want to be in here, the testosterone is simply too high."

You could hear Juliana walk out as the two teen boys stared at each other, one with more anger than anyone ever knew he could possess, one in confusion. They stood like that for a while much like in old western films when the good guy would stare at the bad guy until finally, finally one of them shot the other.

"I don't know why you are so mad at me," Travis said, breaking the tense silence during the entirety of Remus devoted everything he had into glaring.

Remus thought for a second before replying, taking a short break from the glaring. Then he spoke, "What you need to understand is that Alpha here is my sister. Not by blood, but by what's important. I let her know everything she knows about the discrimination against werewolves, she taught me a lot of things to help with the transformations. For a while she was in outs with the Marauders, and we got real close Eaters attacked Hogsmead last year, we fought together and if Alpha wouldn't have brought me to my sense I would have died. When they first started hunting werewolves, we were on the run you see, she is very important to me. More important to me than say, you." Remus stopped looking at Alpha then, glaring his new found impressive glare as he spoke, making Travis really wish he were eaten by the floor.

"You are selfish," Remus spoke, "You are stupid, thanks to that and your unrequited crush on Alpha you kept her condition from us. She could have died. Why? Because we know things about her, I know more things about her than you can ever imagine, that could affect that. After that you didn't ever tell us, you didn't even tell us late. You're cowardly and a shame to the wizarding world. Most importantly though," Remus said, standing up and going to Travis, looking down to glare at the slightly shorter seventh year. "If you ever give me the chance, I will kill you."

Searching Remus, Travis looked for any doubt. After close analysis Travis gulped. Remus was not lying, he would kill him as soon as he had the chance.

"Now why don't you leave like the coward you are," Remus said.

Travis left quickly.

-0-

In a small damp room, with no windows or lights, a bloody teen sat with his head leaning on the wall. He sat in a small cot by the wall of the room. If he opened his eyes he would see his bloody robes due to a faint glow that never left the room. He would also see a toilet and a sink, both dirty. Of course that wasn't a worry he had right now. Neither was his NEWTS or his prefect duties. Somehow, when captured by Lord Voldemort those things seemed unimportant.

Severus Snape could only assume the room was charmed, or maybe the water, because -though he was never fed- he was never hungry. He got thirsty though, and drank out of his hands from the sink when he did. However, the water didn't always work so he often went an entire day with nothing to drink.

Severus looked up, opening his eyes, as Lord Voldemort walked in. By the mans walk, Severus was pretty sure he had no intentions to torture him anymore, but he wouldn't be too sure about that.

"I see you are still keeping your shields up," The Dark Lord said. "Regardless, Alpha Omega is still in a coma, if she doesn't heal soon you will pay the price." He said nothing further and turned to walk out, Severus watched as he did so.

_Why does he care so much about Alpha?_ Severus questioned inside. _Why did he care from the start? Alpha clearly wasn't on his side, in fact she rejects it just as much as Black. In fact, her mannerism towards it was very similar to Black. Is she related to him? No, she's not related to Black, at least not knowingly, no-one would do the things that I've seen her do with Black with someone they were related to. Related to the Dark Lord? No, couldn't be. The eyebrows though, the hair curling, the eyes. Severus ran through the similarities, and the power. She's his daughter, that's why he cares, it's simple human intuition, he can't help it. Alpha, Alpha is his weakness and that's why he won't let anyone know._

-0-

Authors Note: So I know it's been awhile, sorry guys. We just moved and that was madness. Bright side, here is a chappie! I know Alpha still isn't awake, but give it time! (Or maybe I'm just gonna have her die, you never know.)

Biggie: The set up for Alma Aleron, even the name, I got from the author of the James Potter series, G. Norman Lippert. he graciously agreed to let me borrow it, and in turn you guys should seriously read the books, they're good.

Also, to my English readers, how is my 'english'? Is it realistic to how someone in England would talk?


	8. Chapter 8: Eyes Open

**Eyes Open**

_She was sixteen, only sixteen_

_But I loved her so_

_But she was too long to fall in love_

_And I was too young to know_

At sixteen you didn't have a lot of guys already married, but for John, not being married to the girl in front of him singing a song that he was pretty sure was about statutory rape was unimaginable. It was the spring break of his Sophomore year at Alma Aleron and he was happily enjoying a break at his wife's home with her family and his younger brother. Even three days ago he had been dreading the usually terrific break. His father was an angry alcoholic who beat his children, his mother a cold woman who did nothing but expect her children to 'not behave so that they need be punished'. He never would have been able to leave his little brother, Mark, alone when he just didn't show up (a tactic that John and Mark found worked really well, though Mark would die if he didn't warn John as to where he would be). Thankfully, Alpha had been able to convince her parents to allow both of them to stay, reminding them about how sick she had gotten over the Winter Break and running with that. Though her parents knew about the bond, and therefore knew that her logic was more than valid, they knew a bit about his family life and were more than eager to let them stay.

"Where are you going to sleep, John?" Mark, John's 12 year old brother,a sixth grader eagerly showing off magic whenever he got the chance. Being 12, he hadn't exactly received the birds and the bees talk, and regardless he didn't even know they were married. A fact John was amused by, the child was very naive and regardless of him only seeing Alpha has a girlfriend, he thought -correctly- that she was his mom in the way that John was his dad. Of course, by making that connection one could see him as very wise.

"In Alpha's room," John said.

"Oh, okay." Mark said.

Beta rolled his eyes, like Mark he saw the couple as dating, but from being around them and his parents he saw their dating as a more permanent thing. Regardless, he was 14 and that whole kissing and cuddling thing they were doing was gross.

"Yeah," Alpha said, leaning over to Beta from behind, who was sitting on the floor facing John. "We're sleeping together tonight."

Mark was too focused on his game of Go Fish to notice, but it freaked Beta out accurately and John laughed with Alpha, though he was upset that she stood up as it removed his view down her shirt. She winked at him and he simply stretched in reply, his shirt going up, _two can play at that game_.

_Jackass_, Alpha smiled sweetly and went to sit on his lap on the couch.

_Tease_, John lightly wrapped his arms around Alpha. She leaned her head back to fit in him more comfortably and then kissed him lightly.

"Gross," Beta said, "Can't you guys get a room?"

"We do have one." Alpha pointed out.

"It's only 8:30!" Mark said, "You can't already be tried."

"Oh I love this part!" Alpha said, jumping out of Johns arms and making him dance as her absolutely terrible singing voice sang along. John eagerly got into it, happily embarrassing his little brother beyond repair. He loved how happy and into the music Alpha got, and her energy was magnetic, drawing him to her.

That was probably what John loved most about Alpha, she made him fun. John had always been a people person, but he was a strict rule follower. He supposed, were he writing a book, he would probably connect it to his family, but he was pretty sure that when he was in his mother's stomach he was already deemed a rule follower. Assuming the rules weren't broken, John was a laid back guy that liked fun just as much as the next sixteen-year-old He dated plenty girls before Alpha, but he wouldn't throw himself in the category of a ladies man. Now that he was married to Alpha, though, he found himself happily letting loose. He was less stressed, and thought out the whole situation before determining something as bad because it broke the rules. Alpha made him human, not a really well programed robot, and he could never stop loving her for that.

"_Now, she was only sixteen, only sixteen_

_Oh but I loved that girl so_

_But she was too young to fall in love_

_And I was too young to know_

_Yes she was too young to fall in love_

_And I, I was too young, I was much too young to know_"

-0-

_Alpha Omega, you wake up right now, return to your friends and deserving boyfriend who need you_.

-0-

Alpha turned in her bed then, not having the will to wake up. She was warm, she was content. In her bubble of warmth there was no war, no drama, nothing but comfort and the occasional vague dream. It was too late though, her consciousness had returned.

-0-

Sirius had run from quidditch practice, not even waiting the five seconds it took Lily to inform the team that practice was now canceled. He got to her room in record time, just in time to see her wake up and say his name.

"Alpha!" He said, alert, but the nurses would allow him near her. Not yet.

"The Medi-Witch is working on her," One with long brown hair pulled into a clean ponytail said. "You can't be with her just yet, it would mess up the spells."

"The spells can wait." Sirius said, not shoving at them but not willing to stay away.

"No," The other nurse said, a petite girl with thin, wavy blond hair with bangs. "They can't, now wait outside with the others."

"Sirius, come on," Remus said, pulling the stubborn teen out with him.

Sirius let Remus lead him out, but everything about him said no regardless. His eyes, tensed arms, and feet ready to run at the first sight he saw that made him think he could.

Juliana gave Remus a worried look, but Remus wasn't worried. Sirius was his brother, and from their years together, Remus knew that Sirius was just fine, if worried and over energized.

Juliana trusted Remus judgement, she did, but she was still worried. Sirius was behaving so much different from the Sirius she met months ago. She looked over at her savior, crowded as spell after spell was used to keep her up. She stopped the nurse that ran out.

"What's going on?" She asked, putting her hand lightly on her arm.

The nurse stopped slightly, not really having time to stop but realizing how much good these short seconds would do.

"Her body is out of energy to stay up," She said, she gave a smile. "We just need some pepper up potion."

Juliana would have replied, but the nurse was already gone. Rushing off to the store rooms, the nurse couldn't risk the girl falling back to sleep. So, she ran as fast as her legs would carry her to get extra strength pepper up potion. It was a special potion that both prevented sleep and kept the person up, but basically it was pepper up potion and she found explaining it fully scared loved ones.

The athletic brown haired nurse ran back to the room and gave the potion to Alpha, who seemed to still be trying to sleep. "Oh no you don't, those teens have been annoying ever since you came here."

The blonde looked at the brown haired girl, "Eva, seriously?"

"Whitney," She replied, happily noting that Alpha was waking up. "Yes."

Eva brought the news to Sirius, Juliana, and Remus.

"She was slipping back under, but we got her out." At the word but, Sirius was already at Alphas side. Eva smiled at Sirius then turned to the other two, "Make sure she stays awake until at least ten tonight, midnight is preferable. It shouldn't be a problem with the potions she has been dosed with, but if she does rush her back here as soon as you can and try to wake her back up."

Remus nodded, "I'll make sure everyone knows."

Juliana kissed his cheek, "And I'll make sure they get here."

"No, you don't have to-"

"Go talk to Alpha," Juliana said, "You know you want to." She finished on a teasing note before leaving.

Eva smiled at Remus, "You two dating?"

Remus blushed awkwardly, "Well, I don't, well,-"

"-I'll let you talk to Alpha but, ah, here's my address." Eva gave Remus a piece of paper and left him. He absentmindedly shoved it in his pocket as he turned to Alpha.

"Hey Remus," Alpha said, "You going to mail her or not?"

"Well- that's not what, I mean you just got up!" Remus said, the blush returning to his cheeks.

"Not even up fifteen minutes yet and you've already embarrassed someone," Sirius said.

Alpha smiled, "Skills."

"How are you feeling?" Remus asked.

Alpha shrugged, "Awake."

"Good enough," He replied, "It's definitely a change in pace."

"How long was I out?" She asked Sirius, he finished settling in on her bed with her in his lap before wrapping his arms around her and answering.

"Well," He said, "Its Halloween."

"Daym," She said, "That's one hell of a nap. Oh wait, it's your birthday! I haven't gotten you anything!" Alpha tried to shove out of Sirius' arms, much to Remus' amusement.

"Hey, don't leave on my account," Travis said, Letta shyly at his side.

Remus glared at Travis, Alpha was too preoccupied with Letta.

"Hey baby-child," Alpha said, extending her arms to the girl. "You've grown."

Letta looked at Travis, who nodded, and then ran at Alpha, jumping onto the bed into her lap. "I was so scared you weren't gonna wake up!" She said, hugging Alpha tightly. "So so so scared, and then Travis was talking to Malcolm and Morgan about how they were going to take away your Head status if you didn't wake up soon because the chances of you waking-"

Alpha ran her fingers through the small girls hair, not regretting for a second her decision to take the potion. This panicking little girl was why she would do it all over again, "Hey hey hey, calm down sweetie pie, it's all okay, I'm awake now."

Letta didn't reply, but gripped Alpha's scrubs tighter.

"You're awake!" Malcolm exclaimed when he ran into the room with Morgan.

"Are you okay?" Morgan asked with concern, a calmer tone to his voice.

"I'm _great_," Alpha told them, "How are you guys?"

"Good," Malcolm said, "Morgan here's got a girlfriend."

"Oh does he now?" Alpha replied, amused.

"Yes," Said James, "And Malcolm won't stop talking about it."

James and Lily had just walked in, holding hands. Lily broke her hand hold with James to somehow hug Alpha despite the fact that she was sandwiched between Sirius and Letta.

"How are you feeling?" James asked.

"Good," Alpha replied.

"Sorry we're late," Lily said, "I had to put up the things from practice."

"It's no problem," Alpha said, "I'm at no loss for company."

"Well that is good," Albus Dumbledore said, Juliana at his side. "I assume you have been asked how you are feeling?"

Alpha laughed, "Once or twice."

"Well done," He said to the teens in the room. He then handed Alpha a small bag filled with scrolls. At her questioning look, he replied, "I assumed you would still want to graduate on time, consider these study guides, you don't have to worry about any missed assignments but you will be expected to know the material for the finals at the end of the year."

Alpha smiled gratefully, "Thank you." She said, he nodded.

"I have to go, but from my talk with the kind nurses out there, you should be fine to return to Hogwarts in time for the Halloween feast." Albus smiled his ever-present smile and left then, leaving an already conversation filled room.

"So what did I miss?" Alpha asked.

"Well," Said Juliana, "Morgan has a girlfriend."

Morgan smiled,still happy Alpha was healthy, but it was clear he was embarrassed. Ever observant of her packs needs, and regardless not looking for that sort of information, Alpha shook her head no.

"What about the war?" She asked as if it was obvious, "How is that going?"

The rooms mood seemed dull, no longer were the thoughts joyous and in relation to Alpha's survival to to deaths and destruction nationwide.

"I'm taking Letta to Hogwarts," Travis said.

Remus nodded, "That's for the best."

Juliana studied the floor, and Alpha gave Remus a quizzical look. Instead of answers to the unvoiced question, Alpha got answers on the war.

"Voldemort," James said, refraining from calling him Tom (as they had been doing for what seemed like forever) as Juliana, Malcolm, and Morgan were in the room. "Has been attacking small families, muggle borns and purebloods that say no, a fair amount of half bloods. He brought down a few orphanages and attacked a small wizarding neighborhood- nearby where that Lovegood bloke lives- and then came back during their recovery."

"His main tactic seems to be terror," Remus said. "That's why we think he goes back, not so much to finish the job but more to show people what he can do."

"So he's recruiting," Alpha said.

James and Remus nodded. Remus continued.

"He's made it outside of the country too, which is odd, if he is looking to gain members you would think he would focus on that, not spread the ones he has far out, away from him and less in his control."

Alpha shook his head, "Travel from nation to nation here is like going from Texas to Florida, easy peasey, if he were only attacking the island he wouldn't have the fear he wants."

Morgan nodded in agreement with Alpha, "She's right, it's less of a territory thing and more of a 'you can't run away' thing, makes him seem stronger."

It occurred to Sirius that Alpha would know better than anyone that his tactic was one that allowed for no escape.

"A lot of kids are dropping," Said Juliana. "It's even the slytherins, Snape I think was his name, gone without warning."

"Which is stupid because Hogwarts is where they are most safe," James said.

"Their parents are just trying to do the best they can," Lily said. "If my mum and dad knew all about the war, they'd have me at home in a second."

"Which is the justification they used to imprison her here," Juliana said. "James, your logic is twisted too easy, you can't say things like that."

James would have gotten angry, but instead Lily got curious. "What do you mean?" She said, "I've heard you say similar things."

Juliana smiled at Lily, "Because," She said, "James is a leader. He's Head Boy, the sole heir to the Potter line, has history of successful battle, and anyone who is in contact with a higher up in the war front -or who is really observant- knows that, for some reason, Lord Voldemort has singled you out. The only one who can get away with saying things like that in your group is Remus, and maybe Sirius because everyone knows him to be rash, and Remus never would because he is too well thought out."

Remus smiled and James gave Juliana an odd look. Before she could ask, which is saying something, a nurse came in to the room.

"Ms. Omega?" She asked, "You're ready to leave now."

Alpha smiled gratefully and got out of bed, Sirius was reluctant to let her go but did. She stretched and pulled her boots on, not bothering to change out of her scrubs. She threw everything there that wasn't the hospitals and looked at the amused group, "You guys ready to go?"

Juliana didn't even lecture her on gender specifics.

-0-

"Alpha?"

"No, she's all sick or something,"

"I heard she dumped Sirius and joined a drug ring back in American."

"Well, that's her."

"Is it?"

"No, remember she was sent back to her old school why Malfoy's family."

"Well I don't know anyone else, anywhere, with that pink hair, though it is longer."

"Just as hot..."

"GREG!"

"What?"

"You can't pick that tart-"

"Seriously Rhonda? That's your concern?"

"Oh shut up," Alpha said, "And shove off." To say that Hogwarts was stunned silent would be a complete and total lie, though future biographies won't tell you that. The students of Hogwarts walked into the Great Hall to see the Marauders and the Wolf Pack, or just Pack if you weren't being a rude twit, all sitting at the Gryffindor table happily enjoying each others company. As soon as Alpha was seen, conversation topics were changed to her, even as they sat right around her. To say it was annoying was a gross understatement, and Alpha could give a rats ass about her title as Head at the moment.

"Well someone is pleasant," Alpha could have heard John say in her head. "Don't forgot you're a Head."

_I'll give you a-_ It occurred to Alpha where that thought was going, and that that wasn't really a threat. Then it occurred to her that she couldn't have heard John, he was dead.

Regardless it reminded her that she _was_ Head Girl, she couldn't just tell everyone to shove off. Just then, the Gryffindor Cheer Squad came.

"Alpha!" Sue yelled, running in front of the squad to tackle Alpha into a hug, nearly knocking her into her food.

"Sue," Alpha said with a smile, "Izzi, Morgana, Nessa, June, Polly, Finoa, how goes it?"

"Well terrible," Nessa said, "Now the guys aren't going to be looking at me anymore, couldn't you have waited until after the Halloween dance?"

Alpha smiled happily, it was nice to have someone like Nessa. There were plenty of people saying how happy they were that she was back, the sort of happy insult was nice.

"Oh ignore her," June said, "We're all happy to have you back. Not that Remus is a bad captain, but we sorely need some new cheers."

Alpha smiled, somehow relieved to have work to do. She didn't want to take it easy.

Sirius watched warily, knowing she should take it slow.

Juliana and Remus watched amused at the two, and Travis sat at the edge of the group watching Sirius with disdain.

"Awesome-fantastic," Alpha said, but she didn't have much time to talk to her squad before others came.

"Alpha!" Alpha was quickly finding that she hated her name, Alexis skipped over and sat next to Morgan after hugging her. "Welcome back."

"Hey Alexis," Alpha said, "You keep these two under control?"

"Morgan, yeah, Malcolm?" Alexis shook her head, "He's had detention for a week, and he still has a month to go!"

Malcolm blushed sheepishly, knowing that Alpha was going to lecture him. Before she could, another person came.

"Hey," Rita Skeeter said, surprising everyone. "Welcome back, I'm happy you're not, you know, dead." With that she awkwardly walked away, leaving Alpha unsurprised.

A crowd had formed, and everyone wanted to talk to her! Jessica Baxter, the fifth year prefect that originally 'sided' with her older sister, but after Alpha protected her from a gang of Slytherins looking to do nothing nice Jessica had began to worship the Head Girl. Morgan Walter, a fellow seventh year, came over and managed to talk for about five seconds before hitting on her again. Ginger and the other Alexis, the heads of the other Cheer teams both came, Alexis cheerily pointing out that now they could beat her in person. Ginger stated with her matter-of-fact voice that the students do eventually become the teachers in response to Alphas comment that she did teach them all they knew. Jacob Gellato, the third year (now fourth) boy from the Battle at Hogsmead that offered to teach protego to the others came and said how happy he was that she was alive. Beth Hunter, the girl that taught Alpha cleaning and hair spells in exchange for more practical spells that Alpha had learned in America (spells that ended up saving her life at the Battle of Hogwarts, and over the summer when she had been able to save herself and her muggle family from attack with them), came and wished Alpha luck. She told her about spells that would hide the bags from her eyes, spells that -it occurred to Alpha- would be very useful for the time to come. More and more came, plenty of people she had directly saved at battle, people that she had saved from bullies, people that thought she was particularly fit, anyone she had ever impacted.

On one hand Alpha knew she should be astounded by how many people she had positively impacted during her stay at Hogwarts. She was actually, she had never imagined she made such an impact. On the other, she was tired of the two lined conversations. She wanted to talk to people, and not so many that she only got a "Hi" or a "Thanks" in. By the end of dinner she was happy to be ushered out by the Marauders, with the exception of Remus and the rest of the pack. (While Remus and Juliana had gotten away with it the first night at Hogwarts, the Headmaster had made clear that Alpha was the only werewolf allowed to sleep somewhere other than the hospital wing and the Pack's basement).

"Well that was mad," Alpha said finally, sitting on the couch across the fire with Sirius. Lily and James agreed from their loveseat caddy corner to the couple. "I'm just happy I've seen everyone and it's over."

James broke out laughing.

"What?" Alpha asked, confused.

"Alpha this school idolises you," He said. "And I'd know, because I'm the one everyone came to to see if you were awake yet."

"So what you're saying is-"

"Yes," Said Lily, a bum bum bum type tone to her voice. "It's only just begun."

Alpha blew a raspberry with her mouth, "Being on the run was easier."

Sirius laughed, "Well none of that, because I'll keep the blokes away."

"That's just because you're sick of them hitting on Alpha," James pointed out.

"Oh come on," Alpha protested, "Those are the best ones!"

Sirius laughed, "Fine," He said, "I won't kill them."

That raised plenty of laughter from the group.

-0-

_Author's Note: Hello all! I know it's been awhile, sorry! I had writers block so even though it was all planned out, I couldn't write it! On the bright side, I really like this chapter, xD. Reviews will bring a new chapter in their wake, just so you know! Also, the song is 'Only Sixteen' by Dr. Hook and is actually from the right time period (it is currently 1977 in the story, October. In that scene it was 1976 May-ish.)_


	9. Chapter 9: The Face in the Butter

**The Face in the Butter**

The next morning Alpha was once again bombarded with people, which she appreciated but after the night before she really wished they would give her a break.

"Oi!" Sirius yelled after a while, catching on to Alpha's mood and being plenty annoyed himself. "Clear out!"

Noticing the actual anger, the people dispersed, and finally Alpha was given peace.

"Those two are so cute," She said, nodding at Morgan and Alexis at the table across from them. The two were holding hands under the table, Alexis' face showing triumph and Morgans showing happiness at the situation.

James turned around to see and smiled, "Yeah, what Alexis didn't tell you is that both her and Morgan had detention night before last for PDA. One of the prefects found them snogging in a broom cupboard."

Alpha smirked and started on another piece of bacon.

"Alpha?" Alpha tensed, Remus did the same. The others, not recognising his face without the mask, looked concerned, but were not quite as concerned as they needed be.

"Tom," Alpha said, turning around. Remus looked up at the teachers table, it was clear that whatever had required the Headmaster to rush off the day before still required his presence. He raised his wand under the table, the rest of the Marauders joined suit. It would do no good to panic the students, but they needed to be prepared. Now that they had heard the name, it made sense. Of course they all recognised him then, so they really didn't need the name from Alpha.

"I'm happy you are well," Tom said, dressed in the usual wizard attire. It was clear that he was rich from his clothing, and people were beginning to recognise him as he spoke. Tom was a very popular man in the wizarding world, independently rich and ridiculously handsome. In the magazine that wrote an article on James Potter being the most eligible bachelor, the next article was on Tom and how he was the most eligable for his age group. "Now that you're better, I hope you have come to your senses about joining the family business."

"Tom," Said Alpha, "You need to go."

Tom could sense the magic coming off of his daughter, and knew it was best to leave. His message had been made clear the Marauders, a group of teens that concerned him more than the entire Auror Department, he could come and get them any time he liked. He gave her a nod, and a hug.

"Just know, I'd hate to ground you," He said as he leaned out of the awkward hug and left, walking out like a normal parent.

After he left, James asked Alpha. "Can he do that?"

"Apparently." Alpha said, breathing in and out to keep herself calm, "Apparently he can."

It was Lily who spoke, "Who is he going to kill next?"

-0-

Alpha thought it was a really stupid thing, really. Why were they holding a dance when there was a war waging within their very walls? They should be training, learning, _something_. Not going to a stupid dance.

Regardless, Alpha had put way too much time and energy into getting the dace set up to not attend it. For some reason, James thought that school dances didn't require planning. When Alpha had found out about that in her afternoon NEWT Potions class the Tuesday Tom had come. Part of her was thankful that she had something to preoccupy herself with, most of her was pissed at James. So, regardless of her insistence that it was a terrible idea, Alpha was attending the dance.

She looked herself up and down in the mirror, critiquing what she saw. She hated dressing up, her pink hair ruined anything she tried to wear. Currently, she was wearing a strapless red dress with a heart shaped front. The dress went down to her knees and turned into fire when it did so, the fabric slowing becoming engulfed in orange and yellow on top of the red. It fit her torso and spread out past that, not becoming 'poofy' but more so flowing, adding to the fire effect. The dress was beautiful, but her hair clashed. She knew it did, but when she first got the dress her hair was blonde, and she hadn't had a chance to get a new dress since she found out about the dance. Thankfully, she knew enough altering spells that it still fit even though she had gotten taller and her chest had filled out more. She was disturbed to find out how much weight she had lost.

"Alpha?" She heard Remus call up, that was right, the others were waiting.

Remus was going with Alexis, Lily with James, and her with Sirius.

Alpha headed to the Heads common room and joined the smiling gang to head to the dance.

"You look nice," Sirius said as he led her to the Great Hall.

"Thanks," Alpha said, "You look good too." Alpha was right, too, Sirius cleaned up nice with his black wizarding robes and red accents.

Lily smirked at the two in front of her, and James had much the same look.

"They're so _awkward_," Lily said quietly, with a laugh. Her dark green dress flowing just past her knees, which she was thankful for as she had always hated her knobby knees. The dress had thick straps, with a thick almost belt right belt right below her chest that marked where the dress would fly out.

Matching his girlfriend, James had the same dark robes as Sirius but with (hate it as he might) dark green accents.

In front of the green couple, Juliana and Remus did indeed feel very awkward. They had only been out the one time in London, and that was a long time ago. Juliana's black hair was up and curled, simple in comparison to her pink dress. The dress was perfectly fitted with thin pink straps that had a sheer pink fabric working as a sort of sleeve connected to them. A purple sheer band around separated the perfect fitting dark pink from a sheer fabric skirt that went to her feet, going from almost white pink to dark purple in tiers over a medium pink color skirt. Remus, for his part, work dark purple robes that were surprisingly good looking.

They switched from holding hands to just walking together every ten feet or so, and the conversation was so awkward that Remus actually brought up the weather, inside the castle. They were smiling though, and a blind man could tell they were happy to be there.

The group arrived to the dance early, only by ten minutes, so that James and ALpha could do the first dance, as they were both Heads. James would have danced great, except Alpha was going as fast as she could, causing the school in general to have an amused first note for the dace. James caught on quick, and the two finished the most exaggerated and hyperactive slow dance in the history of Hogwarts.

"We're not going to be dancing like that?" Sirius asked Alpha wearily after the first dance (in which him and Lily had _tried_ to dance, but neither could keep a straight face). Alpha laughed and winked, not answering.

By the halfway point of the dance, it was clear that Alpha had organized a hit. It was ten, two hours left (though if you hadn't taken your OWL's yet, you had to go, something that Malcolm protested loudly before stopping at a glare from Alpha).

"You know where Remus is?" Alpha asked as they drank punch, she scanned the crowd, "Or Juliana for that matter?"

"Probably off shagging," James said with a shrug and a smile.

"No way," Said Sirius, "Snogging, yeah, but there's no way Remus is shagging."

"10 sickles they're shagging," James said, Sirius shook his hand.

"You're on," He said plainly.

"Alpha?" Travis said, walking up.

"Travis!" Alpha said happily, hugging him (despite his awkward standing as he worried about Sirius). She hadn't heard about the fact that he found her, or that he didn't tell anyone. "I didn't think you were coming, this is great, you look nice!"

Sirius knew that Alpha was being nice, but the surge of jealousy was threatening to make him spontaneously combust. Lily looked wearily at the situation, probably the only one who knew what was going on and had a cool head.

"Do you want to dance?" Travis asked, Alpha nodded.

"Sure," She said, she'd been dancing with others all night, as had James, plus Travis was her friend. She turned to Sirius (confused at his tense face), "I'll be right back, yeah?"

Sirius really really wanted to say no, but not only was she already gone (assuming he would say yes) and he didn't want to argue about it.

Alpha slipped off with Travis, dancing simply to the upbeat music. "So how's it been? In all of the madness, I haven't had a chance to see Letta again, is she good?"

Travis nodded, "Yeah, Letta is great, a bit sick, but overall fine. She does miss you but she understands that you have Head duties."

"I'll have to visit her soon regardless," Alpha said, not taking the easy excuse to not see Letta. "How'd she do on the moon?"

Travis shrugged (he wasn't much of a dancer), "It was just like any other, though the rabbit idea was great."

Alpha paused her dance to bow slightly, "Why thank you, I am very smart."

Travis smiled, "Do you want to go ahead and see Letta now?"

"Well," Alpha said, "I really should be here but..." She smiled then, "Let me see if James will cover for me."

Travis gave a smile, "This crowd is crazy I'll meet you in the walkway out."

Alpha nodded, then went through the maze to find James, Lily, and Sirius somehow all dancing with each other.

"Hey," Alpha said, "James, could you cover me for a bit? Letta's sick."

James looked to Sirius nervously, "Yeah..." He said, adding a _but you shouldn't_ to his tone, Alpha couldn't hear the tone though, it was simply too loud.

"Thanks!" She said, giving him a hug. "Sorry Sirius," She said, giving her boyfriend a kiss. "I'll be back soon, if I'm not back by 10:45, I owe you."

Sirius nodded, knowing it was best to not try and stop her. Besides, she was just visiting Letta, she was finally away from Travis. Yeah.

-0-

"Hey Letta," Alpha said softly to Letta on her bed.

"Alpha!" Letta exclaimed as she sat up to see Alpha and Travis sitting on the edge of her bed. She yawned even as she got up, when she shivered Alpha moved her hand to Lettas head.

"Oh baby, you're burning up," Alpha said, gently moving Letta back and pulling up her blanket. She wished she could do a healing spell, but doing the fever reducing spell on someone so young was too dangerous. Alpha gave her a kiss on her forehead, "Get well, okay?"

"Wait, you'll come visit me then though right?"

"Of course," ALpha replied, clearly scandalized that Letta would think otherwise. "Send everyone out, Malcolm, Morgan, Travis, Remus, Juliana, everyone!"

Letta laughed lightly and closed her eyes, almost instantly falling back to sleep.

"Are you giving her any medicine?" Alpha asked Travis then, who nodded.

"I ordered some, but I'm sure it's safe, I'm rubbish at potions, will you check it out?" He said, Alpha nodded and they headed to Travis' half of the room where he laid the potion out along with the list of ingredients. She sat down and read over then, looking at the potion every now and then and 'umhumm'-ing.

"Looks good-" Alpha didn't get to finish because Travis leaned over and kissed her, shoving his tongue into her mouth and pushing her on the bed. Sirius often did the same thing, but when Sirius did it Alpha wasn't trying to shove him off. She bit his tongue violently but couldn't actually shove him off, werewolf for werewolf he was stronger. She went to scream for help when he yanked his mouth back reflexively, but he smothered her with his mouth again too soon. He wordlessly did a silencio on Alpha, who panicked and freaked as a surprise kiss turned to rape. In her state of panic Alpha could think of no spells, but at the point that Travis could say he had sex with her she was so terrified she didn't think of what would happen other than her escape and she sent all the magic she had at him, which was quite a lot.

His body shot through the magically formed rock that made his wall, shooting him all of the way into the serpent statute. She lay on his bed panicking beyond words that her burst of magic enabled her to now make. She was just crying now, crying so hard as she curled into the fetal position and didn't notice Malcolm and Morgan run up after coming back from the kitchens. They dropped their food and ran at her.

"Alpha?" Malcolm asked, "Alpha are you okay?" He didn't even have to look at his brother, as the twin was already running to the dance.

-0-

"YOU LET ME THROUGH THIS DAMN DOOR!" Sirius bellowed at the entrance to the Pack's dormitory, angry that it was eleven and she wasn't back.

"Sirius!" Morgan said, looking at Sirius like he had saved the day. "Something with Alpha- Travis is dead! I'm getting the others."

Sirius nodded, jaw set, and would have shoved around Morgan, except Morgan knew better and was already running to the Great Hall.

-0-

Alpha did _not_ want to see Sirius, she didn't want to see _anyone_. She was so ashamed that she had let Travis do what he had done. She literally hid her face as people tried to comfort her, shaking off any touch. Everyone came, the Marauders, her Pack. It was too much. She couldn't feel anything but thanks when Poppy kicked everyone out.

"Sweetie?" Poppy asked, sitting down an appropriate distance from Alpha. "Sweetie you can talk to me."

"Do I have to?" Alpha asked, causing the witch to smile grimly.

"I am afraid so," She replied. "In an effort to not have to take your memory of the event, if you could explain to me what happened. I know it is too soon, but it is an urgent matter."

Alpha sat up, shaking from the fear and tears still threatening her body. "He, he had me come down for Letta." Alpha nodded towards the empty bed that once held a charmed-to-sleep little girl of eight years. "Because she is sick, then he wanted me to go over the potion he was giving her- he was no good at potions." Alpha chuckled lightly, it was watery, filled with the guilt she had for killing one of her family. It didn't matter that he had raped her, it only mattered that he was dead because of her. "Then he just shoved himself on me, I- I tried to shove him off, I bit his tongue- but then he was back and did a silencing spell and then he-."

"Don't worry," Poppy said, "You're done, it's no worries, now I'm going to run some diagnostic spells on you, is that okay?"

Alpha nodded, barely registering the spells.

"Well there is no physical damage," Poppy said, trying to be positive.

Alpha couldn't bring herself to nod. "Can I leave?" She asked, sick of being on the bed, sick of being in that basement, sick of being in Hogwarts, sick of England.

"Of course," Poppy said, "Do you want to go to your dorm or the Hospital Wing?"

"I'm not hurt, I can stay in my dorm," Alpha said, weakly getting up. Right now she wanted nothing but a shower.

"Of course," Poppy repeated, "The dance ended a couple of hours ago, so you won't have anyone to bother you."

Alpha nodded, wearily looking at the door. She didn't want to see her pack, she didn't want to see her boyfriend, she was so ashamed.

It must have shown, because Poppy spoke up. "You have nothing to be ashamed of, and your friends, they know that."

Alpha nodded, not believing that she had nothing to be ashamed of, but believing that her friends shared opinions with Poppy. Minus Sirius, he had always been so jealous. Her friends were like that, overly forgiving. Of course, she knew Letta was also an exception. How could the little girl like her anymore when she killed her older brother?

She slowly walked out of the room, expecting the pity looks, not expecting the hug.

"I am so so so so sorry that my brother did that," Letta said. "I promise I won't let anyone ever touch you ever again."

That was all it took for Alpha to crumble to the ground in tears.

-0-

"I'm going to kill him,"

"If he weren't already dead,"

"That jackass."

James looked at his friends and sighed, "We need to be calm, not mad, when Alpha comes out. She's such a wreck, we can't be a wreck too."

Remus glared, seething at the spot where Travis' body had been removed. "I hated him so much- I shouldn't have gone off with Juliana or we could have just come down here."

Sirius wasn't in the mood to be calm, "He raped her! How can we not be angry?"

"I agree with both of them, well not Remus, Remus honey it's not your fault." Lily said, "I can't believe this happened, we trusted him!"

James huffed esasperated, "You do know that the little eight year old over there is taking this better than you?"

James didn't fare well after that comment.

He was right though, as Letta was having the situation explained to her by Malcolm and Morgan, who knew her better than them. Well, Remus knew her just as well but he wasn't in a 'talk to the younger sister of the rapist' mood at the time. As they told her she got angry, not at Alpha, but at Travis. Malcolm and Morgan found themselves very surprised, but pleasantly, that she was so mature. They had already known she was smart, but right now she was surpassing adults.

Knowing how she felt, Malcolm and Morgan were probably the only people in the chamber that weren't surprised by Letta's reaction to seeing Alpha. At seeing Alpha break down, the group had mixed reactions. Malcolm and Morgan stayed back, Remus and James doing the same. They didn't want to make it worse, and Remus and James personally had learned that getting closer to her only panicked her more. While the older teens knew it wasn't personal, but they'd be lying if they said it wasn't hurting them that Alpha was afraid of them. Lily and Sirius ran up to her, staying back as she held on to Letta, and Letta held on to her. The two of them were hurting, and Lily and Sirius knew to stay sort of back. Of course they were about a foot away. But still.

Juliana was, as always, thinking ahead. She was upstairs, making Dumbledore talk to her.

"...and don't tell me to calm down, or that we can do this later, because we need to start acting now." Juliana said, "Am I correct that we don't have to worry about Azkaban? Considering that, apparently, her father is this super rich politician."

The Headmaster nodded, proud of the girl. She didn't have all of the information, but he was sure that aws wouldn't be a problem, if only because Alpha's father was taking over the government. Of course, he saw no reason to tell Juliana that little detail. "What do you suppose we do next?"

Juliana was surprised at that, honestly she could only guess. "What about Letta? Can she stay as a ward?"

The Headmaster nodded, "But only for a couple of weeks, and because she's not a student we couldn't even keep her here for the remainder of the school year."

"How could we change that?" Juliana asked, "Because Alpha is going to want the pack to stay together."

The Headmaster nodded, "How many laws do you know?"

"None, not really, I know most of the one allowing me here," Juliana said, shrugging. "That's why I need your help."

The Headmaster nodded, getting the impression that Juliana was going to run the ministry when she was older. "Well, the laws about custody..."

-0-

"Hey," Sirius said to Alpha, it was two in the morning, they had classes in a matter of hours, but Sirius wasn't going anywhere until Alpha talked to him. She had avoided him all weekend, pretending to be asleep when he came in, or if she was in the restroom she would just stay there. The previous day she had come downstairs, but when he came in, she left. The group only talk him to ask her, but how exactly could he?

Camping out in the Heads commons was a last resort.

Alpha turned to walk away, but Sirius ran up and lightly touched her arm, knowing how much she was against touching he just lightly held on then let go.

"Sirius," Alpha said, not wanting to talk to him. At least now she could fake that he didn't hate her, but if she talked to him... Everyone, especially Lily, kept telling her that he didn't hate her, but how couldn't he? She slept with Travis, and he _hated_ Travis.

"Alpha, why won't you talk to me?" Sirius asked, not giving her time to run away.

Alpha sighed, her eyes watering, she felt sick to her stomach. She felt weak. She had never felt weak in her life before, and she found it was a terrible feeling. "Because I don't want you to dump me."

Whatever Sirius was expecting, that wasn't it. "Alpha, Alpha why would I break up with you?"

Alpha's sight got blurry right before the tears silently broke, "Because I slept with Travis."

Sirius clenched and unclenched his fists, not sure how to respond, but once again reminded of his hate for Travis and what he did. Alpha noticed and started crying even more, causing Sirius' anger to dissipate. He wanted to grab Alpha and hug her, let her know everything was alright, but he knew her reaction to that would not be positive. Instead he lightly grabbed her hand and led her to the loveseat closest to the fire. Alpha followed his weakly, hating that she was that weak then. Being led along by her boyfriend right before he dumped her.

"Alpha," Sirius said, grabbing Alpha's other hand and looking into her eyes. "Alpha, Travis did a terrible, _terrible_ thing, and I could not hate you for that. You've done nothing wrong, and I love you, I am not breaking up with you."

"But you hate Travis," Alpha said. "And I had sex with him!"

"No, Alpha," Sirius said, "No, you had sex with me, you had sex with John, you got _raped_ by Travis, there's a difference. You didn't do anything willingly, and anything that he did to you could never make me not love you."

Alpha was still crying, she was beyond trying not to cry. "But- Sirius-"

"No buts," Sirius said sternly, "Alpha you have been hurt, and I am not going to be leaving you today, or any day, because of what that jackass did."

"So can I-" Alpha paused, "sit..."

Sirius wrapped his arms around Alpha, pulling her into his lap. "You can do anything you want."

Alphas tears continued to flow, "I'm so weak." She said, "I've... I've never felt weak my entire life, and now I feel _so broken_."

Sirius just hugged her and readjusted so the two of them were laying down, letting her cry.

-0-

"Hey Alpha," Juliana said, sitting in between Alpha and Remus at the Gryffindor table. It had been a week since the rape, and Julianas happy tone- not faking it- was surprising. It was a happy surprise, one that Remus happily moved over and James stopped talking about Quidditch in order to hear the end of. "So, I am sorry I haven't been around this past week, I know you need all the friends you can get, especially female ones, anyway, so I was busy talking to the Headmaster and working out some details."

Alpha was confused and overwhelmed, she looked to Remus, hoping he would know what his 'girlfriend' was talking about. While Remus knew what his not-actual-girlfriend meant by details, he wasn't sure what had been done. He decided to not say anything.

"No worries," Juliana said quickly, seeing the panic on Alpha's face. "I am a harbinger of good news. Well I hope- anyway, so Letta is currently in the temporary custody of the school as a ward, which was set up because her guardian was a student but with her guardian less, and therefore not in the custody of a student, she can only stay temporarily as the courts hash it out. So, as it stands she is going to be put into an orphanage in two weeks. Don't worry! I have it all worked out. All we need to do is get someone who is at least 17 to take custody of her, and she can stay."

"I'll do it," Alpha said, "I'm 17, and Letta knows me. I know... I know what I did but she seems to be okay with it."

"Alpha," Lily said, "You can't just adopt a kid, you're a 7th year!"

"I've been a mom before, Lily," Alpha said to Lily, sharply. "It's the least I could do."

"You've been a mom before?" Sirius asked, more curious than anything else.

Alpha nodded, "Sort of, John's little brother lived with us, though we never got to the living together, he was still... Nevermind."

Sirius didn't press the issue, instead Remus spoke. "Legally, I don't think it will matter who, considering everyone in the pack that is old enough lives together."

Juliana nodded, "I know when I turn 17, I'll do everything I can to help out. However, there does need to be a single guardian, and that person will be her parent, she needs stability."

"Why doesn't Remus do it?" Lily asked, "I mean, I'm not saying he should, and neither am I saying that Alpha shouldn't, but why not?"

Remus shrugged, "It's not that I don't want to, but I don't have as much desire as Alpha. Besides, I don't think that I have as much of a mothering gene."

Alpha nodded, "Remus is perfectly welcome to take custody, but..."

Juliana nodded, "Because of the delay of paperwork, it's best we decide today, I know it's soon, but the sooner the better."

Alpha looked at Sirius, "Are you okay with this?"

Sirius nodded, "It's not up to me regardless, but yes, I am okay with it."

"Great," Juliana said, handing Alpha a mass of parchment and a quil. "If you could sign next to all of the X's."

Alpha went to sign, but Remus stopped her, "You should read that before you sign it."

"Remus is right," Said Lily.

"Why?" Asked James, "I mean, it's just to transfer custody right?"

Juliana nodded, "But Lily and Remus are right, Alpha you should read them first."

"Well," Alpha said, "I've got NEWT Transfiguration next, and then a school wide cheer meeting I can't miss, can I read them tonight?" She knew it was good advice, and so she wasn't going to ignore it. Also, if she waited until that night, she could talk with Letta.

"Sounds good, can you give me the papers signed tomorrow at lunch?" Juliana asked, already gathering up her stuff to leave. She had plenty of homework to get to, homework she had put off to work on the custody arrangements.

Alpha nodded, "That could work."

"Great," Juliana said, jumping up. "It's nice to see you, have a nice night, I have so much homework though and I have to go."

"Good luck," Alpha said, "And thank you for working this out."

Juliana shrugged, "I knew that between Head duties, squad stuff, and life, you'd be pretty busy. Unfortunately, now I'm busy, bye!"

The group watched as she ran off, "Well, that was unexpected."

"With everything, I wasn't even thinking about that," James said in agreement to Lily.

"Which is terrible," Said Alpha. She didn't say much, her thoughts locked on going to see Letta, who was in her room. Travis' room. Yeah, that one, with the bed. She knew she needed to talk to Letta, but even being back in the chamber was a terrifying prospect. She didn't want to confront all of those memories. She didn't want to look at the broken snake statute and remember Travis shooting back into it. She didn't want to remember what she did with him, or more 'accurately' what he did to her, which was how she knew her friends saw it. She didn't buy into that. She was a powerful witch, she could have sent that magic to stop him before. She didn't. Sirius thought it was fear, panic, she knew better. Subconsciously, she was convinced, she had wanted it to happen. She hated herself for that, and she couldn't possibly go down to the Chambers, the place of her mistake.

Noticing her panic, and guessing what it was correctly thanks to his insistence that she talk and not do what she did before, Sirius grabbed her hand lightly. "Hey, why don't you go with Remus down to the basement. Letta will probably like having other people, the whole 'it takes a village' saying and all."

Remus nodded, instantly understanding. Sirius knew he couldn't smother Alpha, as much as he wanted to. Also, it was a good idea independent of her worry, Letta would feel better knowing she wasn't alone. "That sounds good, I want to let her know I'll be there too."

Alpha nodded, taking the easy way, "Yeah, it's good for Letta to know everyone wants to help her out."

"It's a plan, we've still got 45 minutes or so," Remus said, "you want to go?"

_Oh yeah, totally, not, _"Sure," Alpha said, faking a smile that had no-one convinced.

"Cool," Remus said, standing up. Alpha stood up with him, smiling at an obviously worried Sirius before heading with Remus.

-0-

"Alpha!" An energetic 8 year old screamed happily before running out of the pool to her idol, jumping on Alpha before drying and causing Remus to laugh at her expense.

"Hey Letta," Alpha said with a smile. Dragging her eyes away from Travis' old room and forcing herself to use a happy tone of voice. "How are you?"

"Terrible," Letta mocked a sad face, "Malcolm and Morgan dyed the pool water blue and it stained my swimsuit!"

Alpha smiled, it was true. Upon further inspection the pool water was in fact blue, and her swim suit, once pink, was now purple.

"Want me to fix it?" Alpha said, "I can turn your swimsuit pink again."

"Oh really?" Letta said, jumping on the balls of her feet now, "Could you?"

"Yeah," Alpha grinned, "And my coloring spells tend to be pretty permanent."

Letta giggled, looking at Alpha's hair. "Oh please do!"

Alpha snapped her fingers, causing the little girls suit to turn hot pink, much to the girls delight. "There you go, you're all dry now too."

Remus smiled, Alpha was great with children. "Hey Letta, you want to sit down? We need to talk to you about something."

Alpha and Remus sat down on the couch next to her, their backs to the pool. Alpha was happy about that. She needed to focus on Letta right now.

Letta shrugged and skipped to the sitting area, she skipped pretty much everywhere now. "So what is it?" She asked, sitting crossed legged.

"Uhm," Alpha said, suddenly nervous for an altogether different reason. What if Letta didn't want to be in their custody? What if she hadn't really registered Travis' death, she was only 8.

Remus was nervous as well, but he spoke up regardless. "We were wondering if you would like it if Alpha here adopted you. Myself and Juliana would also be there for you, as well as the rest of the pack, but Alpha would be your legal guardian."

"Oh really?" Letta asked, elated. Her excitement calmed Alpha down enough for her to actually contribute to the conversation.

"Yep," Alpha said, "You'd stay here for the rest of the year, and after that you'd come back to my, Remus, and Sirius' apartment."

"Apartment?"

"Flat," Remus chuckled, "she means flat."

"Oh cool!" Letta said, "I've always wanted to live in London, that's where your flat is?"

"Yeah," Remus said, "There's a park right by it, walking distance, and it's in wizarding London. The way it's set up is really nifty, and there's a basement for during the moon."

"Oh yeah, she was just really concerned about the functionality," Alpha chuckled sarcastically. Letta laughed happily along.

"What's with the laughing?" Malcolm asked, slipping over the couch to sit between Letta and Remus. "And wasn't your swimsuit purple?"

"Alpha fixed it," Letta said, sticking her tongue out at Malcolm.

"Letta here is going to be in Alpha's custody, and will be moving in with us in London." Remus replied, scooting over, not phased by Malcolm's entrance.

"Where's Morgan?" Alpha asked, confused by Malcolms separation from his twin.

"Where's Alexis?" Malcolm replied with a frown and a question. "He keeps ditching me for her, what's so great about girls? Kissing a girl can't be _that_ fun. Plus, guys are so cooler."

Alpha laughed, "Oh Malcolm, they might not be just kissing." She said it to tease Malcolm, but it occurred to her that Morgan might be doing just that. She made a mental note to pull them aside, fairly certain no-one had had that talk with them, not really.

Malcolm had a scandalized look on his face, but then he broke out into a grin. "Hey, that means that we'll have the Chamber to ourselves once Juliana turns 17. This is going to be great!"

"This is not going to end well..." Alpha said, and it occurred to her that it really wasn't good for them to be alone all summer. She considered the adoption, she was a pureblood and had plenty of money.

Remus almost rolled his eyes internally, could Alpha be more predictable?

"Oh Alpha," Malcolm said with a grand voice. "Oh, Alpha dear, it will work out. We are smart enough and brave enough to be on our own. We're big kids, Morgan is even doing big-boy things." He grinned after his momentary wince at the thought when it had it's desired effect, freaking Alpha out.

"Look, you two aren't staying here all summer alone," Alpha said with a sense of finality.

"Oh come on," Malcolm said, "What, is it because you don't think I'm pretty enough?"

"It's not your looks, though I'm not sure why you think 14 year olds are my thing," Alpha replied, a contemplative look on her face as she finished.

"Oh so you think I am stupid?"

"How do you spell my name?"

"A L F A," Malcolm said, "See, I'm not stupid."

"She's American," Remus said with a sigh, "Which means that P and H makes an F. So you spell her nam A."

"Damn," Malcolm said.

-0-

"Why exactly are you keeping me here?"

"For your own safety as well as my curiosity."

"For my own safety?" The teen scoffed, "I'm not stupid. She told everyone, you want me dead."

"I am for second chances, and it appears that fate has given you one."

"You are for learning, you see me as a means to an end, nothing more."

"If you chose to view it as that, you can. However, if you were not here, imagine what the world would do to you."

With a roll of his eyes, the young man replied. "Yeah, because there is _no way_ a guy will get away with rape in this country."

"Fine, imagine yourself as a prisoner, it matters little to me."

"How is Letta?"

"Goodbye."

**Authors Note:** Well that was chapter nine, and no, the chapter title has nothing to do with anything. I hope you enjoyed it, we're gonna have some peace for a bit. I know this chapter had some touchy parts in it, but it is important to the plot line.

If you review you get a chapter!


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